Jury Takes Less Than An Hour To Convict 'Don Juan' Accused Of Fleecing $370K Of Home Equity From Two Woman With False Promises Of Love, Marriage

In Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reports:

• A man accused of wooing two women and convincing both to marry him while fleecing them out of a combined total of more than $370,000 was convicted Thursday of organized fraud and two counts of grand theft.



• Paul Francois, 57, faces 30 years in prison on each count, a total of 90 years. Deputies took him into custody immediately after the verdict was read. Sentencing is scheduled for March 1.



• Jurors took less than an hour to reach a verdict in a case that comprised three days of testimony featuring dry bank statements interspersed with the accounts of two women who thought they found in Francois the man of their dreams.



• Francois was accused of romancing Rose Marie Anglade, 52, and Sheila Brissault, 45, while convincing them to turn over money leveraged from homes they owned in New York in the summer of 2007.



• Anglade sold her home, gave Francois the money and moved to Miramar to be with him. Brissault, who testified Wednesday, took out a home equity line of credit and gave Francois $100,000. He proposed to both women and promised each that he would buy a home in South Florida with them.



• Defense lawyers Alex Hunt and Frank Negron painted their client as sincere in his affections for both women and classified his misdeeds as civil, not criminal. But prosecutors Don Tenbrook and Al Guttmann said love had nothing to do with Francois' actions.



• Now awaiting foreclosure, Anglade remained in court throughout the day Wednesday and Thursday, even though she was through testifying. Before Thursday's verdict was read, she sat outside the courtroom and wondered aloud how long the jury would be and whether they would see in Francois the con man she now believes him to be.



• As soon as the verdict was read to Broward Circuit Judge Cynthia Imperato, a court deputy put Francois in handcuffs. Anglade gave an audible sigh when she heard the click. "Justice is served," she said minutes later, looking across the courtroom as deputies fingerprinted the man who talked her into selling her house in Astoria, New York and moving to Broward with her then-16-year-old daughter. Outside the courtroom Thursday, Anglade called Francois a con man who deserves to spend the rest of his life in prison. "Everything was a lie," she said.



• Anglade and Brissault testified that they did not know about each other until their relationships with Francois began to crumble. When Anglade asked for her money back, she said Francois threatened her and gave her a black eye. Brissault said he threatened to kill her and her children.



• Defense lawyers said Francois was ready to be sentenced immediately after the verdict was read, but Imperato put off the sentencing when prosecutors said the victims deserved a chance to tell the judge directly how Francois' fraud affected their lives.

Source: Miramar man convicted of fraud, theft in 'Don Juan' case.

See also, Man wooed women, then swindled them, prosecutors say.