« Law - "ACLU Says Extracting DNA From Suspects Unconstitutional" | Main | Ind. Decisions - More on "Inmates' sexual romps not a crime" »
Thursday, October 08, 2009
Courts - The Jury is In: "Brooke Astor’s Son Guilty in Scheme to Defraud Her "
Updating this Oct. 6th ILB entry, John Eligon reports in the NY Times this afternoon:
The son of Brooke Astor, the legendary New York society matriarch, was convicted on Thursday of stealing from her as she suffered from Alzheimer’s disease in the twilight of her life.Barring an appeal, the jury’s verdict means that Mrs. Astor’s son, Anthony D. Marshall, an 85-year-old war veteran who fought at Iwo Jima, can be sentenced to anywhere from 1 to 25 years behind bars.
Mr. Marshall was found guilty of 14 of the 16 counts against him, including one of two first-degree grand larceny charges, the most serious he faced. Jurors convicted him of giving himself an unauthorized raise of about $1 million for managing his mother’s finances. Prosecutors contended that Mrs. Astor’s Alzheimer’s had advanced so far that there was no way she could have consented to this raise and other financial decisions that benefited Mr. Marshall.
A second defendant in the case, Francis X. Morrissey Jr., a lawyer who did estate planning for Mrs. Astor, was convicted of forgery charges. * * *
The verdict drew the curtain on a trial that lasted longer than had been expected. The jury of eight women and four men sat through more than 19 weeks of testimony and arguments in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, hearing detailed accounts of Mrs. Astor’s luxurious life of summers on an estate in Maine and dinners with diplomats. They heard testimony from Henry Kissinger, Barbara Walters and Annette de la Renta, among others.
The prosecution had portrayed Mr. Marshall as greedy, saying that he was driven to squeeze his mother for money at the urging of his wife, Charlene. On Thursday, Charlene Marshall sat stoned faced as the verdict was read.
Mr. Marshall’s son Philip had initially raised questions about his mother’s well-being. He was not in court on Thursday, but reacted with disbelief at the sweeping verdict against his father. “Oh my God,” he said when reached on his cellphone. "Wow. Wow." He said needed time to compose a statement: “There’s just too much going through my head right now.” * * *
In his closing statement, Joel J. Seidemann, an assistant district attorney, read from the Book of Psalms: “Do not cast me away when I am old. Do not forsake me when my strength is gone.”
He added, “It has been said that a society is judged based upon how it treats its elderly,” and asked jurors to hold Mr. Marshall “accountable for stealing from and defrauding a great philanthropist, a great New Yorker and human being in the sunset of her life.”
Posted by Marcia Oddi on October 8, 2009 03:37 PM
Posted to Indiana Courts