The “preaching plumber” who gave up his Fourth of July and $5,000 to free alleged cyber stalker Heleen Mees from Rikers Island got nothing but the cold shoulder in return from his damsel-in-distress.
Leon Alfonso, 45, tried to tell Mees he was her knight-in-shining copper when she briefly appeared in Manhattan Criminal Court Friday morning.
Pale and unemotional, the 44-year-old Dutch economist stared at Alfonso blankly when he whispered his identity to her.
“I got close to her and told her I was the one who paid her bail, but she didn’t react. Stoic, was how I’d describe it,” said Alfonso. “I guess she was probably trying to pay attention to the judge.”
Alfonso, dubbed the preaching plumber by his clients for his habit of praying over clogged pipes, said he didn’t make his sacrifice expecting anything in return.
Leon Alfonso, the man who bailed out Heleen Mees, holds up her bail paperwork on Friday. Alfonso is the owner of Main Drain in Brooklyn and said he felt sorry for Mees when he read in the Daily News that Mees had been arrested and was described as "friendless."
(Jefferson Siegel)“I’m a religious man, I believe in God, and he just laid it on my heart,” said the unmarried former paralegal, who spent six hours on the Fourth of July trying to spring Mees from Rikers Island.
Asked if he’d like to meet Mees, he said “Sure, why not?”
“But I would never reach out to her,” he hastily added. “People would think I was a stalker. If she wants to meet later, fine.”
The humble plumber said he couldn’t stop thinking about Mees in jail after she was arrested Monday and charged with stalking and harassing her married ex-lover, Citigroup honcho Willem Buiter.
Mees and Willem Buiter, chief economist for Citigroup Inc., once had a relationship but it soured.
(Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg)He accused Buiter of using his clout to keep her in jail.
“I hope this adulterer is exposed for what he is. This was a woman in love,” railed Alfonso. “She should have been released on her own recognizance.”
After reading in the Daily News that Mees couldn’t cobble together $5,000 in bail, Alfonso decided to do it for her — and he doesn’t care if he gets it back.
“I’ve been scraping by my whole life, I know what it is to do without. I can make money,” said Alfonso, who says he’s an avid collector of Amelia Earhart memorabilia because he likes “courageous” women.
Heleen Mees was reminded she is not to have any contact with Buiter and his family under the order of protection issued against her Tuesday at her arraignment.
(Jefferson Siegel)Mees didn’t respond Friday night when asked if she had any words for her Good Samaritan, and Alfonso said she hadn’t called.
The well-known Dutch columnist breezed into a wine store outside her Brooklyn home wearing a white summer dress with a pink floral pattern.
The petite former college professor dropped $37 on two bottles of wine — an Italian red and a Sauvignon Blanc. Earlier that day she’d appeared tired and wan as she stood in Manhattan Court dressed in a clingy forest-green sheath dress with a zipper up the back, teetering in sky-high beige heels.
The courtroom was packed with avid Dutch journalists eager to see the downfall of one of Holland’s best-known feminist opinion-makers. Mees, who worked for the Dutch government nearly 15 years ago, was once on the short list of names for possible secretary of finance, Dutch papers said.
Buiter, a married father of two, served Mees with a cease-and-desist letter earlier this year.
(Ramin Talaie/Bloomberg)She was charged with stalking and harassment after allegedly pelting Buiter with more than 1,000 sexually explicit emails and some threatening messages over two years. The two once had a romance but it soured, according to Mees’ lawyer. Buiter, a married father of two, served Mees with a cease-and-desist letter in February — which sent his foxy former lover into an emailing frenzy, court papers say.
According to Dutch newspapers, Mees has stalked before. She allegedly exhibited similar behavior with a married politician when she worked in The Hague several years ago.
But nothing could drain Alfonso’s faith in her good nature.
“It really took a long time to get her freed, but I felt that an independent woman like her shouldn’t be in jail on Independence Day,” said Alfonso.
Mees is known as one of Holland’s best-known feminist opinion-makers.
(ANP/KIPPA/EPA)Among the X-rated messages Mees allegedly sent Buiter was at least one picture of herself masturbating, another offering to “lick your b----s.” She also allegedly sent messages to his wife and kids.
Mees is next due in court Aug. 19.
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