Sue
Ellen Allen, who lived for years in the Algarve as a fugitive on the
run from American justice, had the honour of sharing First Lady
Michelle Obama's box in the House of Representatives during the
president’s last State of the Union address.
A
White House announcement on the eve of Tuesday’s address said that
Allen and a small group of other special guests “personify
President Obama’s time in office and most importantly, they
represent who we are as Americans: inclusive and compassionate,
innovative and courageous.”
It
was in the Algarve in 2002 that Sue Ellen and her husband David
Grammer, then using the aliases Susanna and Michael Grammiere,
were
exposed as fugitives. They had absconded seven years earlier,
before being convicted in absentia of defrauding US investors of more
than a million dollars.
Former
friends in the Algarve alleged that the Grammers had cheated them out
of investments here too.
In
the face of bitter accusations and threats to turn them in, the
Grammers left their home in Silves and surrendered to the FBI in the
American Embassy in Lisbon. Sue Ellen was undergoing treatment for
cancer at the time.
“With
only two more chemo sessions to go, our cozy world, our three dogs
and four cats, vegetable garden, fresh food and pillow-filled world
collapsed,” she recalled in a memoir, The
Slumber Party from Hell.
She
served almost seven years as an inmate of Arizona’s state prison
for women. After her release in 2009, she co-founded an organization
called Gina’s Team to provide support for women prisoners and help
them get back to community life and out of any more trouble with the
law.
Gina’s
Team was named after Allen’s cell mate, Gina Panetta, who died of
leukaemia at the age of 25 while being treated in prison for breast
cancer.
“Gina’s
death started the next part of my life. She gave me my passion and my
purpose,” Allen wrote in her memoir.
It
was Gina’s parents who helped her start her campaign. Now a widow,
Allen regularly returns to the same prison she was incarcerated in to
help prisoners plan a positive future.
In a
message at the weekend from her home in Scottsdale, Arizona, just
before setting out for Washington, Allen said: “I will be sitting
in the First Lady's box at the State of the Union message! It's an
incredible honour to be there representing all the voiceless and
faceless women who are still behind bars. I will take them with me in
my heart. I’m also honoured that Gina's mother, Dianne Panetta, is
joining me. It's the ultimate road trip.”
Obama
has taken a special interest in prison life and last July became the
first US president to visit a federal prison. In his State of the
Union address he advocated criminal justice reform and
reducing recidivism rates. The United States has more prisoners than
any other country in the world.
By
wanting to change the way prisons work, President Obama and Gina’s
Team are very much on the same wavelength.
Allen
told BuzzFeed
News:
“People say, ‘Why should inmates have education? Why should they
have anything?’ Well it’s not a privilege or a reward. It’s a
necessity. It’s a necessity for them and for society because
they’re all going to get out, and if we don’t prepare them and
help them, they’re going to go back to their old life.”
Photo
above by B. J. Boulter in 2002 as the Grammers prepared to
leave the Algarve and give themselves up in the US Embassy, Lisbon.
Below, Sue
Ellen in Arizona as a campaigner to help prisoners and for prison reform.
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