ORLANDO, Fla. (Court TV) — In a lengthy letter to a judge spanning more than 50 pages, a Florida woman charged with murdering her boyfriend complained about her attorney, demanded access to evidence and included a glossary of legal definitions.
Sarah Boone is accused of murdering her boyfriend, Jorge Torres. Boone has admitted to zipping Torres inside of the suitcase where he died, but has maintained that the death was an accident after a night of drinking.
Sarah Boone appears at an April 12 status hearing with her new attorney, Patricia Cashman. (Court TV)
When she last appeared in court on June 7, 2024, Boone brought with her a 58-page letter for the judge in the case. At the time, Boone said that the letter expressed her continuing frustrations with her attorney. The attorney, Patricia Cashman, was the eighth to be assigned to Boone’s case. On June 11, Cashman filed a motion seeking to withdraw, citing irreconcilable differences.
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Court TV obtained a copy of the letter submitted to the court, which includes more than a dozen pages of legal definitions and excerpts from the Declaration of Independence, the Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure and the Florida Constitution. The letter is largely focused on Cashman, who Boone accuses of withholding elements of her case.
“Why am I still not being included in my case, how much more of my case and self is being added hourly (especially after this letter gets loose) to the Internet, increasing the mass infection and destruction of my hopes to have a fair trial, anything fair, my side foremost, and wondering now if my attorney “drank the punch” like everyone else.”
Boone said in the letter that she has lost faith in her attorney, and admits that she has even walked out of meetings with her “due to her unwarranted, uninformative, unprofessional snotty attitude and her untruthful answers to my questions and beyond. … How she treats me is extremely prejudiced, hostile and unconcerned.” But Boone maintains “I AM NOT THE PROBLEM EXCEPT THAT I WANT TO AND SHOULD BE TREATED FAIRLY, WITH RESPECT, ACTING MORE PROFESSIONAL THAN THE PAID, ‘I’VE BEEN DOING THIS FOR OVER 40 YEARS’ ‘PROFESSIONAL.’ After so long and in all the experience, common courtesy, customer service and listening skills should have been acquired.”
READ MORE | ‘Please be nice to me’: Sarah Boone complains about new attorney
Despite her clear dissatisfaction with Cashman, Boone made it clear at the June 7 hearing — and repeated in her letter — that her intent was not to have her attorney replaced.
“I should feel secure, highly confident, proud in her ‘representing’ my life. I do not and have said to her many times regarding her monumental disbelief in me and my case, which I believe, contributes greatly to her inimical attitude towards me. I am hoping by this letter she will pick up the sword of injustice and fight alongside, not against me as so many unmotivated, overwhelmed, weak attorneys prior who bowed out ungracefully, and crept away from the battlefield unsuccessful.”
A map annotated by Sarah Boone and included with her letter to the judge shows places from which she has received messages. (Court Filing)
Boone acknowledged the public interest in her case multiple times, going so far as to include a world map and a map of the United States, annotated to indicate the locations from which she has received messages and mail. She likewise acknowledged that much of her letter was directed towards the public, citing the judge’s previous admonition about ex parte communication. “I am still going to write my letters, as conduitly (sic) they are to the world where all my potential jurors are located and this is the only way anyone, including yourself, knows the very necessary insight to my continued disadvantages, hindrances, impediments I am still experiencing on top of the news, spurring my intentions to write. The race to the pulpit is unfair and it is important to me that ‘you’ are aware and understand what transpires when the news cameras are off, and we are all in between my ‘status’ hearings.”
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The judge previously offered Boone the opportunity to represent herself, which she declined. In her letter, she says doing so is “not an option as both judges have now threatened me with from being outspoken and intelligent in all my observations of the ongoing abuse I am and have experienced. I have no new experiences from it always being the same, ‘BLAME BOONE!'”
Sarah Boone’s signature on a letter dated June 7, 2024, includes an odd message. (Court Filing)
The letter appears to take turns toward the bizarre at times, with Boone saying of her meetings with her attorney: “I added ‘pretend judge’ to our interactions so she could calm down and ease up on her condescension, offensive demeanor and obvious prejudgement. She seems, like everyone else, not to remember I am innocent until adjudged (sic) otherwise. She treats me as if I am not.”
The letter is closed with Boone’s signature, a heart, and a note saying “‘confused cat’ meme. Yes. Thank you.”
No hearing has been scheduled to address Cashman’s request to withdraw.
