Love turned nightmare - Jamaican woman’s romance with wealthy 82-y-o lands her in prison

Tamara Gordon's world was shattered when her passionate love affair with a wealthy 82-year-old man, Robert Duke, turned into a nightmare.

The Jamaican healthcare aide, who moved from Palmers Cross to Connecticut in the USA, found herself at the centre of a scandal involving love and allegations of fraud.

"I still cry every night before I go to sleep," said Gordon, who is now a bishop in her church.

Gordon's romantic relationship with Duke blossomed while caring for his ailing wife in his lavish Wilton, Connecticut, home. She was about 35, and her task was working for Duke, a retired attorney-at-law. Duke's wife was a wheelchair user, ailing from Parkinson's disease. Gordon's job was to assist her on the weekend shift, and she shared the nursing load with another home aide, who worked during the week.

"Robert was quickly attracted to my kind, gentle and loving ways," Gordon told THE WEEKEND STAR. "I did everything I could do to lift his spirits and to make his life happy and comfortable. Before long, we were madly in love with each other."

"I was deliriously happy and I felt like I was on a love roller-coaster that was only going up and up," she said.

Gordon related that her weekends on the job were warm, tender and romantic. She spent time with Duke at a nearby country club, sipping on fine French wines and munching on premium cheeses over long and leisurely dinners. It didn't take long before Duke, who had no impairments that affected his ability to make decisions - began showering her with cash and gifts. During the period of their romance, which lasted about three years, Gordon reckoned that Duke spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and kind on her, and with liberal access to several credit cards.

Gordon was on cloud nine, and felt like the happiest Jamaican girl in all of the USA. However, one day, out of nowhere, Duke's son, Ben, confronted Gordon with a question.

"What's going on with you and my father?" he demanded.

Shocked by the question, Gordon swallowed, took a deep breath, and tried to compose herself.

"Ask your father," she shot back before walking away.

Gordon later discussed the uneasy development with Duke, who, by now, was not in the best of health.

Amid the unease, Gordon said Duke suggested she should take a two-week break as a cooling-off period, but she decided to resign. He reportedly gave her US$10,000 as a goodwill payment. Gordon said Duke even assisted in drafting paperwork to set up her own company. He bought shares as a way to provide Duke with more cash.

UNAUTHORISED CHARGES

However, sometime in September 2013, the relationship started to nosedive. Gordon had been planning a one-month getaway to Ghana, but just before her departure, she was summoned by Ben, about unauthorised charges on a credit card. Gordon said Duke had given her authorisation to use it. She ignored Ben's other queries and proceeded on her trip.

Duke, whose health was fading, reportedly pleaded with her not to go, but Gordon said she had grown tired of the accusations from his family members and needed a break. She jetted off to Ghana. However, on January 31, 2014, she got the shock of her life.

Gordon was arrested a day before her birthday. She was charged with larceny of an elderly person by embezzlement in the second degree, in connection with certain credit card transactions. She was accused of stealing over $12,000 from the senior citizen by making unauthorised purchases using the victim's credit card.

"This was hate, wickedness and vengeance that Duke's family cooked up, and it was born from their bitter resentment towards my love affair with their white father," she sobbed.

Duke died before the trial.

"I lost the man I so deeply loved who meant the world to me, and I am still fuming with rage that my lover's family did everything they could to destroy me," she complained bitterly.

Prior to the trial, Gordon filed a motion to preclude the admission of statements made by Duke to any law-enforcement agent. However, statement made by the detective who interviewed Duke before he died were used in court. Those statements were later deemed to be hearsay.

"It was love versus elderly abuse, and I didn't commit elderly abuse," she said of the case brought against her.

Gordon was convicted and sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment. She did only 10 months behind bars, with five years of probation. Gordon appealed her conviction on the grounds that her constitutional rights and her right to due process were breached. The conviction was overturned and a new trial ordered. However, prosecutors last December conceded there was no basis to go forward with a new trial and withdrew the matter.

The ordeal awoke a dormant spiritual side that was always within Gordon. She started studying the Scriptures, and her elevation to bishop enabled her to provide invaluable assistance and guidance to women who, like herself, were in perilous, hateful, unjust and life-threatening situations.

"I was falsely convicted for a crime I did not commit. The justice system failed me and I was sent to prison on hearsay evidence, only because I am a black woman who had the audacity to share a romance with a white man in the upscale, wealthy town of Wilton, Connecticut," she said.