State prosecutor to retire after 28 years

Vanessa Fultz

May 28, 2009 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- Aileen Wuornos, known as the nation's first female serial killer, was among those Page faced down in court

Aileen Wuornos, the killer of seven men, would hitchhike along the Interstate in Florida and shoot her victims after they pulled off a quiet road to have sex. She would then rob them, take their vehicles and ditch the cars later. One of the vehicles was found in Suwannee County.

Wuornos murdered her last victim in Dixie County.

Ernie Page III, who prosecuted the Dixie County case, said Wuornos was arrested after a man, who had picked her up from a truck stop, reported the incident. He had heard about the other murders and when they got down the road he realized who she was.

"He told her he wanted to pull off and get some beer and he gave her the money and said, 'You run in and get it,'" Page said. "As soon as she got out of that car, buddy, he took off scared to death."

Wuornos confessed to the murders while in jail, but later claimed she had acted in self defense in each case.

Page secured the death penalty against Wuornos in the Dixie County case. She received a total of six death sentences for her crimes and was executed in 2002.

Wuornos, who was touted at the time as the nation's first female serial killer, was perhaps Page's most prominent case. But there were others.

Page also handled one of the largest drug trafficking cases in the Third Circuit. It involved a pair of international drug smugglers who set up an operation on their property in Madison County. The operation included an airplane, a landing strip and a hangar -- of which some said was larger than the Madison County Courthouse.

"They were going to South America and buying marijuana from drug lords and bringing it up here by the ton," Page said.

After their arrest, Thomas Geers and Joseph Valverde broke out of the Madison County Jail and weren't located until some years later. Federal agents caught Valverde landing a cargo plane loaded with marijuana at the Little Rock, Ark., airport. He maintained that he was working for the CIA.

Page said that Valverde's attorney subpoenaed former president Ronald Reagan and Oliver North for the Madison case.

"I thought I was going to get to cross examine Ronald Reagan and Ollie North," he said.

Page tried Geers in 1994. Valverde was offered a plea deal, since he had already received a lengthy sentence in federal court.

Page said among the items seized in the case were more than a ton of marijuana, hundreds of thousands of dollars and an airplane that was given to the state and later used by several Florida governors.

During the trial Page brought the marijuana into the courtroom. He said it stacked up almost to the ceiling.

"I wanted the jury to see what kind of dope they were bringing in," he said.

Page made an appearance on national television earlier this month for a Suwannee County case that he prosecuted. The show, Women Behind Bars, featured Marion Faye Cason, who received life in prison without parole for the death of her 2-year-old daughter, Serenity Miller.

Page served as an assistant state attorney for the Third Judicial Circuit -- Lafayette, Suwannee, Hamilton, Columbia, Madison, Dixie and Taylor counties -- for 28 years. He will bid that job farewell at the end of this month.

Page was asked by former state attorney Jerry Blair to serve on the state attorney's special prosecutions unit early in his career. As part of the unit, Page prosecuted murders and drug trafficking cases for more than 20 years.

Page was also cross sworn to serve as an assistant U.S. attorney twice -- for a drug case in Taylor County and a vote-buying case in Dixie County.

"He was an excellent trial attorney," said Blair, who hired Page. "He was one of our top attorneys for many years. He tried hard cases and had excellent results."

"Ernie has been a very good prosecutor and a role model for prosecutors in this office," said State Attorney Skip Jarvis. "I sincerely hate to lose what I consider one of the best prosecutors I've ever known, plus a very good friend, to retirement."

A retirement luncheon was held to honor Page on May 22 at the state attorney's office in Live Oak.

For Page, practicing law is a family tradition. His father, the late Ernest Page Jr., was an attorney in Madison for 58 years and his son Ernie Page IV practices in Perry. Between the three of them, they have more than 91 years' experience.

After retirement, Page plans to reopen his father's practice in Madison, possibly with his son.

"We'll give a hundred years to the business and call it quits," he said.

Newstex ID: 35345186