Facebook ‘like,’ dead roses land Boca hit-run suspect back in jail
Man was ordered to stay away from his former girlfriend.
A Boca Raton man is back in the Palm Beach County Jail after clicking “like” on his ex-girlfriend’s Facebook post and having a dozen dead roses delivered to her place of work, court records show.
Bianca Fichtel is key to the state’s case against her ex-boyfriend, Paul Maida, who police say drove away after hitting, and killing, a 66-year- old bic ycli st in April 2014 on Yamato Road just west of Interstate 95. He drove back, police say, only after he switched seats with Fichtel.
A judge previously had ordered 31-year-old Maida to have no contact with Fichtel, not even through social media. Until Wednesday, Maida had been on house arrest.
In July, a man dropped off a dozen dead roses to Fichtel’s boss, court records show, telling her to “deliver them to Bianca; she will know they are from her ex-boyfriend.”
The 26-year-old woman originally took the fall for the fatal wreck and spent more than a year on house arrest. Now she is testifying against Maida, whom she turned in to the state attorney in late 2015, with hundreds of emails incriminating him as evidence.
A P a l m B e a c h C o u n t y judge revoked Maida’s bond Wednesday after hearing about his interactions with Fichtel. She told the state attorney’s office that days after the dead roses were delivered, she heard a bang on her bedroom window. The knocking woke her up — it was about 6 a.m. — and when she went outside, she found a note tucked under the windshield wiper on her car. It read: “There is no where you can go that I can’t find you. I will never stop loving you.”
Less than a month later, she received multiple Faceb o o k n o t i f i c a t i o n s f r o m Maida “liking” her photo and trying to tag her in another.
Maida faces charges of leaving the scene of a fatal crash, DUI manslaughter and false report. He is scheduled to appear before a judge again Sept. 21.