Charlotte Durante

Charlotte G. Durante. 1986

Charlotte Gilmore Durante (aka Mama Charlotte) (born April 19, 1944 in Forkland, Alabama) was elected in 1978 the first African American woman City Commissioner in Delray Beach, Florida. The City of Delray Beach is located in the southern part of the east coast of the State of Florida in Palm Beach County.

Early life

Charlotte Gilmore Durante was born and raised on a cotton farm in Forkland, Alabama in Greene County. Her mother was Claretter Bryant Gilmore. In Alabama, they were members of the Old Green Oak Baptist Church in Forkland. She is the youngest daughter of 8 siblings born to their devout Christian mother Claretter Gilmore. Charlotte Gilmore Durante was named after her grandmother. Durante comes from a Civil Rights Family in Alabama. Her nephew is Dr. Rev. Thomas Gilmore who was the first African American Sheriff in Greene County, Alabama during racial strife of the Civil Rights Movement. Dr. Gilmore served as one of the aides to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference. A TV movie starring Lou Gossett, Jr. was produced in 1978 about Dr. Thomas Gilmore's feats. The movie was released under two different titles: Lawman Without a Gun and The Man Who Stands Alone. Dr. Gilmore and Durante were both raised on the same cotton farm by Claretter Gilmore.

Education

Charlotte Gilmore Durante excelled in school and attended the historically black college Tuskegee Institute, where she earned a bachelor's degree in nutrition. While at Tuskegee, Durante participated in the Selma to Montgomery marches which protested the harsh Jim Crow laws that plagued Alabama. She pledged the Zeta Phi Beta sorority at Tuskegee Institute. Following her graduation from Tuskegee, Durante earned a master's degree in Nutrition from Penn State University.

Professional career & community involvement

In 1967, Charlotte Gilmore Durante married Kenneth Durante and they made Delray Beach, Florida their permanent home where they raised their two children named Tony and Lori. Charlotte's husband was formerly a traveling waiter during the era of legal segregation where he waited tables at whites-only resorts in the Northeast and exclusive whites-only restaurants in Delray Beach and Boca Raton, Florida. The "traveling-waiter-circuit" consisted of African American men who traveled from coast to coast each season working as waiters at upscale restaurants during segregation. Once settled in Delray Beach, the Durante's were the second African American family to join a historic white church in the area that was established by German settlers of the town. Following the principles of the Civil Rights Movement about racial harmony, the Durante family were integrationist in Delray Beach, Florida.

She and her husband became successful business owners. In 1970, they owned the first racially integrated child care center named Kenland College for Tots that included racial integration among the staff and also racial integration among the children who attended the school in Delray Beach and Palm Beach County, Florida. The school was awarded outstanding by SCORE because of its campus design, operation and curriculum. The success of the school led Charlotte and her husband to open a children's clothing store name for their children Tony & Lori. It was the first African American owned business to open in the former Delray Beach Mall in Delray Beach, Florida.

In 1974, Charlotte Gilmore Durante opened the first black-owned real estate company, Durante Realty, in Delray Beach and southern Palm Beach County, Florida. In 1985, she owned the first black-owned State Farm Insurance Agency in Delray Beach and southern Palm Beach County which was also the first State Farm Insurance Agency owned by an African American woman in all of Palm Beach County. She was honored by State Farm with the "New Agent of the Year" Award. By the 1990s, she and her husband were the largest African American business owners in Palm Beach County, operating numerous businesses. The Durante's were among the American Black Upper Class in South Florida. A racially integrated staff was prevalent in their businesses.

Her community involvement included being the first African American in Delray Beach and/or Palm Beach County and/or the State of Florida to join the Delray Beach Kiwanis; the first African American to serve on the boards of the Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce, the Delray Beach Community Hospital, the South Palm Beach County Mental Health Center; the Delray Beach Sister Cities International and the first African American on the board of the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens in Delray Beach. In 1993, Durante founded the Palm Beach County chapter of Jack and Jill which is a national cultural and civic organization for children of the black elite.

In the 1990, Charlotte Gilmore Durante also became instrumental in leading efforts to revitalize the historic black business district in Delray Beach known as West Atlantic Avenue. She helped to found the now-defunct Peach Umbrella Plaza Association. In Durante's consistent belief that African Americans can best build their wealth and yield political power through real estate ownership, in early 2000, she organized the first African American investment club in Palm Beach County, the Phoenix Group, which made history when they purchased an entire front-block on West Atlantic Avenue in Delray Beach.

Charlotte Durante is also the founding editor of The Village Beat which is the second African American newspaper in Palm Beach County and the first African American newspaper to cover news county-wide.

Because of Durante's community activism, in the September/October 1993 issue of Boca Raton Magazine, she was selected as one of "Six Women Who Make A Difference". In 1993, the Junior League of Boca Raton selected her as the finalist for the 1994 Woman Volunteer of the Year Award. She was the first African American to be nominated for that award although she did not win. The Morikami Museum & Japanese Gardens submitted Durante for the Junior League honor.

In 2007, Charlotte G. Durante and her daughter Lori became the second and third African Americans to join the historic Boynton Woman's Club in Boynton Beach, Florida, a civic woman's group, famous for its historic pink building, established more than 100 years ago. Their membership in the exclusive predominantly white group also marked the first time a mother and daughter joined the club together.

"Mama Charlotte" moniker

In the 1980s, Haitians from the Island of Haiti began immigrating to South Florida and often arrived by boat on the shores of Delray Beach, Florida. All came to South Florida to escape the crushing poverty in their black Island home. They were viewed as low-class black foreigners from a poor black country therefore they were greeted with harsh discriminiation and racism in America. In Delray Beach, Charlotte Durante provided endearing support for these Haitian immigrants with housing and jobs. Haitians were even allowed to enroll their children in Durante's child care center Kenland Academy (formerly Kenland College for Tots). And, Durante hired them in various job positions in the businesses she owned with her husband including hiring them in front desk and managerial jobs. These Haitian immigrants named her "Mama Charlotte" because of the unwavering support she gave to them. Durante explained that she helped these Haitian immigrants because she observed the discrimination they were experiencing that reminded her of the painful discrimination during her youth in segregated Alabama.

Peach Umbrella Plaza Association & Delray Beach Tennis Center

In 1989, Charlotte G. Durante led a grassroots effort to organize property and business owners in the 300 and 400 Block of West Atlantic Avenue in Delray Beach, Florida to help with revitalizing the blighted West Atlantic Avenue corridor in Delray Beach, Florida. The West Atlantic Avenue corridor was the historic black business district that developed during the era of segregation. Including Durante, the original charter members of the Peach Umbrella Plaza Association were Carolyn Cunningham, the late Loretta McGhee, and Clay and Hyacinth Wideman. A major accomplishment of this 5 persons group was the fact that it was the Peach Umbrella Plaza Association that initiated and organized the efforts that changed the course of history for the Delray Beach Tennis Center and changed the minds of the Delray Beach City Commission who had planned to move the tennis center to a site on Linton Boulevard in Delray Beach because it was thought that the blighted condition on West Atlantic Avenue was too detrimental to the future operation of the tennis Center. The Peach Umbrella Plaza Association members concept was that rebuilding the tennis center at its same location would be a big boost to the revitalization of West Atlantic Avenue because West Atlantic Avenue is a gateway leading to Downtown Delray Beach, Florida. Because of the group's success with preventing the move of the Delray Beach Tennis Center that also spurred its redevelopment, the Peach Umbrella Plaza organization was one of three projects selected by the City of Delray Beach, Florida when the City competed for and won in 1993 the All-America City Award from the National Civic League. In 1993, the Boca Raton Magazine featured Charlotte G. Durante as one of "Six Women Who Make A Difference" because of her community works for West Atlantic Avenue in Delray Beach. The Delray Beach Tennis Center is now a major economic engine in Delray Beach and hosts international tennis championships that have featured Andre Agassi, Venus and Serena Williams, Andy Roddick, James and Thomas Blake, and Chris Evert.

Controversy-arrest-news media's role

On May 26, 2010, the Police Department of the City of Delray Beach arrested Charlotte Gilmore Durante regarding charges that have not yet been proven true in court.

The charges from the Attorney General's Office of the State of Florida pertain to investments with her real estate company. Durante is facing 59 counts and there are an 83 investors as witnesses regarding $1.89 million. She is among a few African Americans in the history of State of Florida to accomplish and be charged with this many counts for an alleged financial crime.

The bail was set at $503,000. Charlotte Gilmore Durante is a community servant with no prior arrest record thus her bail is among the highest in the State of Florida and the nation. Pleas have been made to the court that the bond is excessive and after almost 3 years of jail confinement, the bail was reduced significantly.

According to court documents, Charlotte Gilmore Durante has proclaimed her innocence in the court of law and stated that she does not know 83 investors. According to a December 6, 2008 WPBF news story, Delray Beach Attorney Annie J. Adkins-Roof recruited Haitians to file complaints with the Delray Beach Police Department.

If convicted of the alleged crime, she could face up to 90 years in prison.

At the time of her arrest at the Delray Beach Police Department, the police and the Florida Attorney's office sent a press release to the Associated Press that gained international traction. The press releases were emailed to the news media before Durante had been booked in the Palm Beach County jail and before she appeared in court to enter her plea. No one in the news media has ever interviewed Charlotte Durante about the charges and allegations prior to publishing news reports that implied wrongdoing by Durante.

The previous presiding Judge is John Kastrenakes, a former U.S. Attorney. Famously, as a U.S. Attorney, Kastrenakes prosecuted then-Palm Beach County Commissioner Mary McCarty (Florida politician). Shortly afterwards, then-Florida Governor Charlie Crist appointed him Judge in the Palm Beach County Judicial Circuit. To remain a Judge, they have to be re-elected by registered voters of Palm Beach County.

Nearly 50 letters have been sent to Judge from family and friends of Charlotte Durante about her life, Civil Rights activities, her character and her Christian beliefs. Likewise, Durante also has written letters to the court and Judge Kastrenakes and about how she helped Haitian immigrants when they were discriminated against all while also recounting in those letters her innocence stating "I am innocent of the charges and I don't plea bargain with Satan, I don't plea bargain my innocence and I am willing to, committed to, prepared to and, if necessary, will die for the sake of the truth and to defend my innocence." According to court records, Durante has proclaimed that the Delray Beach Police Detective Casey Thume allegedly falsified evidence against her possibly for political reasons and not based on proven criminal activity. Because of Durante's steadfast plea of innocence against overwhelming criminal charges, she has been viewed as a martyr. Judge Kastrenakes has refused all requests for a reasonable bail thereby ensuring beliefs in both the African American and White communities that Durante's arrest and excessive bail are politically inspired, racially motivated and a high-tech lynching. In reaction, nearly $10,000 was raised with donations from the community for Durante's legal defense. Durante's track record as a community leader and her political activism has been described as a "fighter for the little guy" often making her an agitator of popular political positions especially pertaining to her help of poor immigrants and African Americans with increasing their landownership in neighborhoods or districts in Delray Beach, Florida that the local government wanted to gentrify. Thus, some have considered her a political prisoner in Palm Beach County, Florida because of the arrest with an excessive bail especially when she had no prior criminal record.

The current presiding Judge is Charles E. Burton.

Much suspicion has developed about a December 6, 2008, news story that aired on WPBF Ch. 25. The reporter was Terri Parker who has never interviewed Charlotte G. Durante but orchestrated an ambush-style news story against Durante about alleged criminal activity. Because Parker never interviewed Durante before airing the story, it is believed that Parker acted on a false information from Attorney Annie Adkins, the police detective and office of Florida's State of Attorney in Palm Beach County. The news story stated that it as actually engineered by Attorney Annie Adkins of Delray Beach. Adkins has statements against Charlotte Durante in all news stories about the charges where Adkins is presented as the Attorney for some of the alleged investors but Adkins is not the lawyer of all the complainants. Before that December 6, 2008, news story aired, Adkins sent letters advising these people to seek their own counsel. Court documents show that Attorney Adkins became a special assistant for the State of Attorney's Office while she was also presented as a private attorney representing the investors.

Testimony from the trial was recapped in the Palm Beach Post: "She promised me I could get my money back in four months," said Pierre Polynice, who invested nearly $20,000, some from his Publix retirement account, with the promise of an 18 percent return. "I didn't get a cent back. It was all a bunch of lies." Like most of those who testified on the opening day of what is expected to be a three-day trial, Polynice spoke through an interpreter. Natives of Haiti, prosecutors said they came to South Florida looking for a better life and instead were duped into giving their hard-earned money to a con artist. Some said they trusted Durante because she was a god-fearing woman. One said she (referring to another alleged investor) belonged to his church. "She actually used god's name," recalled Jean-Remy Revilien. "She said she was trying to help Haitian people and she was doing it for god." But, prosecutor Bill Minton said, she was doing it for herself.

Those who testified said the long-time real estate agent told them she would use their money to cover down payments for struggling families who couldn’t get bank loans. Once the families got the conventional loans, she would repay investors with interest of up to 18 percent. Instead, Minton said, she used the money to pay the mortgage on her house and to establish the Museum of Lifestyle & Fashion History, a struggling venture operated in Delray Beach and, at one time, in the Boynton Beach Mall by her daughter, Lori Durante.

Some of the 83 people who invested with Charlotte Durante from 2006 to 2008 received some interest payments, Minton said. Most received nothing. "It went to prop up her idea and what she wanted to see happen; not what she told them would happen," he told the eight jurors.

Durante’s attorney, Thomas Montgomery, insisted his client did nothing wrong. She planned to get donations and government grants for the museum. That money would be used to repay investors, he said."

On April 15, 2013, after more than 5,000 pages of evidence and deliberating for 12 minutes the jury found Charlotte Durante guilty. Judge Burton immediately revoked Durante's bond and remanded her. Judge Burton denied Attorney Montgomery's request to allow Durante to remain on house arrest until sentencing for medical reasons. On April 19, Attorney Thomas Montgomery submitted a Motion for a New Trial citing many mistakes including Judge Burton erring by forcing Montgomery to represent Durante when Montgomery submitted a Motion to Withdraw on April 8, 2013 at 8:30am and the court erred by accepting the guilty verdict from the jury when they only deliberated for 12 minutes. "...it is clear that the jury did not review any evidence...," stated Montgomery in his Motion for a New Trial.

Eve Lyon, jury forewoman, said the panel had no choice but to convict. Montgomery and Durante insisted they had evidence that would prove investors knew what they were getting into. But, it was never presented to the jury. "It was mainly lack of contrary information from the defense side," Lyon said. "(Montgomery) didn't demonstrate anything concrete."

New court trial

Court-appointed defense Attorney Thomas Montgomery submitted to the Palm Beach County Clerk of Court a Motion for a New Trial for Charlotte Durante. He stated many errors in the trial and among of them included the jury rendering their verdict in 12 minutes for a case that had more than 5,000 pages of evidence.

Montgomery wrote prosecutors failed to prove it, and, "the guilty verdicts are contrary to the law and inconsistent with the evidence." Montgomery's motion also blasts the jury for reaching a verdict in 12 minutes, despite 5,000 pages of documents and more than three days of testimony. "It is clear that the jury did not review any evidence, did not examine testimony and had come collectively to an opinion of guilt prior to the conclusion of the trial," Montgomery wrote, adding that it deprived Durante of "a fair and impartial trial." The defense attorney also said the judge erred by forcing him to represent Durante, and by failing to grant a trial delay because of Durante's medical condition.

Eve Lyon, jury forewoman, said the panel had no choice but to convict. Montgomery and Durante insisted they had evidence that would prove investors knew what they were getting into. But, it was never presented to the jury. "It was mainly lack of contrary information from the defense side," Lyon said. "(Montgomery) didn't demonstrate anything concrete."

External links

• Official website