One of the jilted lovers of a man whom investigators called the “Sweetheart Swindler” took the stand Tuesday to explain her accusations that he stole her cash and her heart.
With tears in her eyes and a tissue in her hand, Rose Marie Anglade described how a seemingly perfect romance cost her $283,000.
"I meet him so I said I could trust him because I knew him before when I was a teenager, and I trust him and then he was a big, big, big liar," Anglade told Local 10.
Anglade testified with the help of a translator as she tried to convince a jury that Paul Francois is a devious con-artist who was only after her cash, not her heart.
"Before he stole your money, he's like a little angel. He put himself on his knees to beg you for anything," Anglade said.
Anglade first met and began dating Francois in 2007. After several months, they decided to buy a home together, so Anglade said she opened a joint bank account and poured her life savings into it.
But a check she wrote bounced, and Anglade said she found out her money was gone – and so was her fiancé.
"If they let him go, they don't put him somewhere, he will do that over and over again," Anglade said.
At least one other woman has come forward claiming Francois, now 57, did the same thing to her at about the same time.
Prosecutors said Francois stole nearly $400,000 in total from women he wined, dined and eventually proposed to.
The defense maintained the man was in love and women gave their finances freely.
"I don't deserve what he did to me,” Anglade said. “I don't deserve it."