"I don't doubt for one second that Ana would piss away all of her money given the opportunity," says the volunteer. "But the fact remains, it's her money. We gave it to her. We didn't give it to Jay. There are times when counselors and advisors get too close and think they know what's best. But you have to be careful of not stepping into the role of abuser -- which is so easy to do when you've got somebody who is vulnerable and who's been living with an abuser, that those patterns are still there."
That may be a wholly unfair characterization of Jay Hamburger's relationship to Ana, but the comparison to Julio Bustillo, who's now serving a 20-year prison sentence, is something that's also occurred to Prieto.
"I thought I had gotten away from my husband," she says. "I thought I wouldn't have anyone telling me what to do anymore. Now, it's happening all over again."
Ana recently moved to reverse that pattern. Isaias Torres, the lawyer who's asking the INS to extend by at least a year Ana's deadline of May 9 for returning home, has notified Hamburger that Prieto wants him removed as a trustee over her money. Torres, who is working for Ana for free after being contacted by several women concerned about her well-being, says he will also seek an exact accounting of how Ana's money has been spent by Hamburger.
Meanwhile, county officials are feeling burned by the whole affair. They point out that the hospital district is not in business to provide free medical care to someone who has money in the bank that was put there by people who intended for their donations to help defray medical bills -- not build a house in Honduras. Assistant county attorney Wind is, if anything, more upset with Ana than Hamburger.
"After all, she did come here illegally," says Wind. "She kind of imported her own violence along with her. From what I understand, her husband threw battery acid on a woman, yet she thought it was wise to come with him to this country."
Hamburger, for his part, suggests that all Ana has to do is say the word, and he'll remove himself from her life. He knows that many people don't like the job that he's done looking after Ana's interests, but he maintains Ana would have fallen through the cracks had he not been there.
He's probably right. Although she and others may not realize it, Prieto could have done much worse than to have been taken under the dominating wings of Jay Hamburger.
"Ana is a lucky girl in a lot of ways," says Hamburger. "Maybe she would have gotten some legs, but nothing like what she's getting."
Last month, Ana was scheduled to check into the Quentin Mease Hospital on North MacGregor to begin the intensive and painful weeks of physical therapy it will take to get her up and moving on the $30,000 worth of prosthetics donated to her. Hamburger assembled members of the media on the front lawn of the facility to chronicle her arrival. The only problem was, Ana didn't come.
Later, she would claim that the person who was supposed to give her a ride to the hospital never showed up at her apartment. That didn't explain why no one responded when Hamburger tried to call her on his pocket phone as he paced on the sidewalk in front of the hospital, resembling an anxious high-tech Gabriel in his brown leather sandals and loose-fitting white shirt and pants.
After about an hour of waiting, the reporters and photographers gave up and went on to the next assignment. Jay never did get an answer, but maybe he was he finally getting the message.
(Claudia Kolker contributed to this story.)
