FORT MYERS, Fla. — A sick Lee County, Fla. hotelier worried about his finances and stomach problems looked in the Yellow Pages under herbs, found the Botanica 7 Potensias Africanas shop in Fort Myers, then sought treatment and help.
On that day in October 2007, Enzo Vincenzi, 43, paid the owner, Miriam Pacheco, $50. A self-styled “Santeria Africana” spiritual adviser and healer, Pacheco warned he was in grave danger and said only she could help.
Over weeks and months, there were ritualistic ceremonies involving a dead bird, a sacrificed rooster, liquid potions, prayers and chants by Pacheco, who calls herself Madrina Miriam (godmother Miriam). Joining in was Pacheco’s “god-daughter,” Maria Teresa Torres, and another god-daughter.
In the end, Pacheco took Vincenzi to a Fort Myers lawyer, and Vincenzi signed documents that Pacheco prepared, signing away his motel in order to free himself from the curse.
Those are the allegations in a lawsuit Vincenzi and the Sabal Oasis Inn filed in Lee County Circuit Court against Pacheco, 57, and Torres, 43.
“It was a very bizarre case,” Naples attorney Michael Randolph, who filed a related lawsuit against Pacheco and Torres, said of Vincenzi’s allegations.
But attorney Joseph Hoffman, who represented Pacheco and Torres, just considers it a case involving a language barrier: Vincenzi speaks English, while Pacheco and Torres only speak Spanish.
“I’ve had weirder cases,” Hoffman said. “I’m not saying this was plain vanilla. But it’s a property dispute. That’s all it was.”
His clients have denied allegations of ritualistic ceremonies, fraud or coercing Vincenzi into turning over his motel.
According to court documents, Pacheco cautioned Vincenzi he was in danger of demonic spirits and the devil, and said the hotel’s prior owners had buried the devil. She told him he was in grave danger, faced IRS problems and had prostitutes working at his motel.
She said she could help by becoming his Santeria Africana godmother. At a card reading and St. Lazarus ritualistic ceremony, she warned he was a “walking dead man” and his housekeeper was poisoning his food.
“During the course of the ceremony, Pacheco killed a bird and passed it over Vincenzi’s stomach while praying and chanting, which she claimed would heal his stomach ailments,” Vincenzi’s lawsuit says. “Pacheco also covered Vincenzi’s eyes, made him drink an unidentified liquid and laid her hands on him — all of which she claimed would help heal him.”
A week later, she sacrificed a rooster, saying it would protect him from the motel’s former owners, who were trying to kill him. She told him to pay her $500 so he could move into the home she shared with Torres, the lawsuit alleges. He remained there, confined to a bed, for about two months as she and Torres served as spiritual advisers.
At one point, Pacheco took Vincenzi to a beach and performed a “Queen of the Seas” ceremony, chanting and praying over him as he lay in the sand. She urged him to see her attorney, who could help with legal problems she was predicting.
She coerced him into transferring the property, promising to save him from demonic spirits and attempts on his life.
She took him to her attorney and Vincenzi signed deeds Pacheco prepared, transferring the motel to her and Torres without cost, the suit alleged. He lost his Jaguar, pickup truck, motorboat and possessions after she evicted him; they deny taking his vehicles.
In April, a Lee County Circuit Court jury awarded Vincenzi $37,000 for intentional infliction of emotional stress. Months after the rituals, Vincenzi had gone off the emotional deep end because of the loss of his motel and his fears that the “seer’s” predictions of doom and death would come true, and wound up involuntarily committed to a psychiatric hospital
The jury also awarded Vincenzi $99,500 for the loss of his 13-room motel and attached home, finding fraudulent misrepresentation by Pacheco and Torres.
Collecting the cash is another thing. Pacheco says she doesn’t have it. Vincenzi’s attorney, Bradley Lang of Naples, is working on a rescission of deed so Vincenzi can get his motel back.
Vincenzi is hopeful.
“They made me homeless,” Vincenzi said after the hearing, adding that he’s unemployed and faces nearly $20,000 in medical bills. “They traumatized me, I ended up in the hospital, I’m drowning in debt — and they’re still in my house.”
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