Free David Heckel

Our family truly needs your help! We are desperately trying to raise funds for my Uncle David Heckel's appeal.  Many of you know my cousins, Lisa and Kristy; this is their father and you may even know of him since he was very active in both of their lives, as well as the lives of many other children.  Tragically, he was wrongfully convicted of sexual assault on a minor and is now serving time in a detention center before heading to prison.  We are extremely concerned about his overall health since he is 66 years old and prison is truly not a place for a person of this age or innocence.   Due to his innocence we are not ashamed to tell his story or the facts surrounding this case.  Please take the time to read our entire story and help in any way that you can.  The smallest of donations add up and could be the determining factor on whether my uncle spends his last days away from his family and in prison.  We greatly appreciate your time, donation and comments.  Below are the FACTS of this entire situation.      Approximately 12 years ago my uncle met a woman while visiting friends in Virginia.  After being alone for sometime he welcomed her friendship and very quickly their friendship turned into a romantic relationship.  My uncle chose to move into her home; against the better judgement of his family so they could begin a new life together.   This new life would include her three adult children and several grandchildren which he welcomed with open arms.  After moving in he discovered that the woman he was seeing owed back taxes on the home and her home was going to be taken from her. In an effort to save her home my uncle paid the back taxes with a stipulation that the woman add him to the deed of the home. This wasn't a strange request given that they intended to spend the rest of their lives together.  The woman agreed and he was added to the deed giving him half of the interest in the home.  He also quickly realized that the home was not livable and feeling as if this was going to be a life-long relationship he made many renovations to the home including required electrical work, built a large addition on the house, a deck and numerous other repairs or upgrades that have probably doubled the value of the home.  Since the woman did not work and had no monthly income my uncle also paid all the bills in the home without complaint.   When he noticed that some of her adult children were struggling financially he allowed them to move into the home and continued to pay all of the bills, again without complaint.        As my uncle got further into this relationship he realized that the woman was an alcoholic and drug addict.  He had already invested time in the relationship and developed a love for this woman so he wasn't about to give up on her.  Again, this was against the better judgement of his family.  He stuck by the woman's side trying to get her help for her addictions to no avail.  Subsequently over the course of time she received at least four DUI's and even served a year in prison.  During her prison stay he continued to pay the bills and support her family.  While doing this he also discovered that two out of three of her adult children were also addicts.  One of them even served time off and on for drugs, theft and other petty crimes.  However, he continued to lend his support and love.  That is one thing about my uncle, he has always tried to see the good in people despite their actions and always hoped for the best outcome if he gave a lending hand.   He had also developed a grandfather relationship with their children.  Knowing the troubles their parents had, my uncle truly felt he was the only chance to give these children a life.  This is nothing new for my uncle.  Being the mother and father to his daughters he understood the importance of giving children your time and undivided attention.  He often did the same for his daughter's friends growing up, his numerous neices/nephews and his own grandchildren.  He made no exception when it came to his "new granchildren" either.  He often bought them things they needed, took them on trips and even gave one grandchild his slightly used car.  Despite our family's warning that he was being used he continued this relationship hoping for the best.   He really felt he was the only one that could help the children and wanted them to have every opportunity possible in life.  He didn't want to bail on any of them and assumed that life would improve with his efforts.      When his girlfriend was released from jail he found out that she had befriended another female inmate that was also released around the same time.  The inmate was incarcerated for the sexual assault of a minor.  Regardless of his concerns, his girlfriend allowed this woman to not only visit their home in the presence of the granchildren but also allowed her to stay overnight for several days in a row.  My uncle was not comfortable with this arrangement and expressed his concerns.  His girlfriend did not acknowledge his concerns and continued to allow the woman access to their home on a regular basis.  Additionally, he became more weary about one of the adult children residing in the home since they continued to use illegal drugs and was constantly in trouble with the law.  Again, his girlfriend did not acknowledge these concerns and allowed her adult child to reside in the home.    Extremely frustrated that he was now supporting addicts with his hard earned money he finally put his foot down sometime between April and May of this year.  He told all the adults in the home that he would no longer support them financially and they would have to begin pulling their own weight.  He would no longer pay all of the bills and would focus on himself.  He was hoping his girlfriend would make the necessary changes needed based on his decision.  This did not sit easily with any of them, including his girlfriend who continued to allow those adults to reside in their home.   We strongly believe it was at this time that her family banded together to seek revenge and figure a way to get him out of the home.        Around this same time my uncle starting telling us that his girlfriend's family started making strange comments around him regarding how close he was to the grandchildren.  Knowing that his girlfriend had befriended someone that was convicted of sexual assault on a minor; this worried us.  We warned my uncle that we felt these comments were preceeding a set up that would accuse him of some type of mistreatment of the children.  It just seemed strange to us that these odd comments were being made after his girlfriend met the convicted sex offender and she had experience in this type of crime in Virginia.  Although we advised him of our suspicions he never believed that any of them would accuse him of any wrong doing when it came to the children because he always took care of them.  Not to mention, who would do that to children!  So he continued to reside in the home and kept his word that he would no longer pay their bills.      On May 28, 2014 my cousin received a phone call advising her that her father was arrested on May 26, 2014 for the sexual assault of a minor, which happened to be one of the female grandchildren.  He was being held without bail, even though he had never been arrested for any crime in the past.  Knowing her father was innocent she took every means necessary to fight for him.  Lisa obtained an affordable attorney in Virginia and told him the entire story.  The attorney gave our family the impression that not only could he get my uncle released until the trial but that we had an extremely strong case that most likely would result in him being found not guilty.  He further confirmed this when he found out that the state had no witnesses, physical evidence and everything was hear say.   After several thousand dollars the attorney was successful in getting him out on bail and after serving ten days in jail my uncle was released on June 4, 2014.  This was a great day for our family and I was honored to be there when my uncle walked out of that jail.  Sadly, it was apparent what only 10 days in jail had already done to him.   He was distraught, looked extremely frail and his eyes were red and swollen.  My first thought was how unhealthy he would have become if he had spent any further time in that place and how thankful I was that he was safe.  Especially knowing that inmates definitely don't welcome offenders of woman or children and don't really care to hear how innocent you are.  But this was a good day and we really felt it would only get better once we had the chance to tell his story.      Unfortunately, between the time of his release and his trial we began slowly noticing that the attorney did not appear as competant as we hoped.  Many times my cousin, Lisa seemed to be telling him what he needed to say to prove my uncle's innocence.  However, we had no time to obtain a new attorney before the trial and again thought that the facts we provided and the lack of evidence would set him free.   Our family really felt that good would prevail and evil would lose.  Who would ever convict a veteran, hard working, 66 year old man that had never been arrested or accused of any wrong doing in all of his years.  We had countless witnesses ranging in age from 9 years old to grown adults that could attest to his behavior around them as they grew up.   We just knew in our hearts that things had to go in our favor.  On October 8, 2014 we all traveled back to Virginia for his trial and remained positive about the outcome until the trial began.  Our family quickly realized the trial would be one-sided.  The judge would not allow the defense to discredit any of the prosecution's witnesses.  He wouldn't allow the attorney to provide any information that would lay the foundation for why this family had a motive to "get rid" of my uncle and falsely accuse him.  The judge claimed that these items were not relevant to the case, although they are extremely relevant.  Essentially we had no opportunity to provide our side of the facts or give a picture of the type of people that were making these accusations.   Of course, the family did show their true colors but for no one else to see.  While our family waited in the hallway, my uncle's ex-girlfriend on several occassions poked her head out of the room they were being held in to smile and stick her tongue out at our family.  One of the adult daughter's tried to instigate a situation with our family by making faces at us when she would walk by.   We continued to remain mature and adult like by reporting these acts to the bailiff who unfortunately did nothing to assist us.    After 12 hours of trial and waiting we were told the verdict had come in.  What shocked us all was that the other family chose not to be present for the verdict, they went home.  In my opinion, this further confirmed his innocence. If your child or grandchild was sexually assaulted wouldn't you want to be present when their attacker received his verdict.  Wouldn't you want that satisfaction, I think anyone would.  So our family sat in the court room and to everyone's suprise my uncle was found guilty.  The sentencing recommendation was five years in prison and two fines totaling $2500.00.  He was immediately removed from the court room and taken to jail.  Needless to say our family was heart broken and devastated by the verdict.  He will not officially be sentenced until January 15, 2015 and can not appeal the court's decision until that date.  Therefore, he must serve at least three months before we can even begin the process of appeal.  We learned a hard lesson that day, its not who's guilty or innocent, but who argues best.  In the meantime, our family is trying to obtain a more experienced attorney in these types of cases.  However, it goes without saying more experience means more money which we have already exhausted.         Our family is deeply concerned about my uncle's health and welfare.  All of his family is in Maryland, he is alone and even when we would like to see him he is limited to visitation once a week (Wednesday's) for only fifteen minutes.  He is being kept away from his family and loved ones, the only ones that can get him through this.  We don't know how safe he is or if he will encounter inmates that would want to do him harm given his charges.  Due to his health and age we don't know how long he truly has with us and a good, innocent man should not spend his last days sitting in a jail for being too kind to the wrong people.         We also want to make it clear that our family truly sympathises with those who have been affected by sexual abuse and feel that abusers should be held the highest extent of the law.  However, it is clear that there are also fraudulent cases, this being one of them and the innocent should have an opportunity to express it.  Unfortunately, that didn't happen in this case.  Our family also feels very bad for the child involved in this case.  Not only has she lost someone who cared for her on many levels but she has been used as a pawn in a very dirty scheme.  She is of an age that we believe she will remember this trial and the part she played in it after being cohersed by her family.  We pray that she will be able to forgive herself and finds the courage to one day tell the truth about the situation.  In these cases, regardless of innocence the children suffer and we are not blind to that fact nor want to diminish the effects this case and others have on abused or cohersed children.        We are asking that in addition to any donation you could provide that you share this link and story with everyone you know.  Its likely that others out there may understand our situation, share it and offer a donation or advice.  If you know my uncle please share your comments, stories or observations of the man he truly is so those that don't know him can understand his innocence and the joy that he has brought to so many lives, including children.  I beg you, please spread the word, share this link and help us free an innocent man!      With appreciation,       Heather Lundy     (Dave's Neice)