Defense rests in Brooke Astor trial in NYC; closing arguments expected next week
By Colleen Long, APWednesday, September 9, 2009
Defense rests in Brooke Astor trial in NYC
NEW YORK — Prosecutors in the fraud case against Brooke Astor’s son called 72 witnesses during the past 18 weeks of trial, including an array of celebrities, politicians and high-society dames. On Wednesday, his defense rested — without calling a single witness.
Jurors stifled smiles as Anthony Marshall’s attorney Frederick Hafetz told the judge: “At this time, the defense rests.”
Marshall, 85, and his real estate attorney Francis X. Morrissey, 67, are accused of exploiting Astor’s declining mental state to plunder $198 million estate. They have denied the charge. The socialite and philanthropist was 105 when she died in 2007, and she had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease since 2000.
The trial hinges on whether she had the mental capacity to sign off on changes in her will in 2003 and 2004 that greatly increased Marshall’s share of her estate. Prosecutors say she was unable to understand complex legal documents, but defense lawyers say she knew exactly what she was doing. The defendants face seven years in prison if convicted.
Morrissey’s attorney called two defense witnesses, both handwriting experts and former FBI agents. On Wednesday, the final witness, a gravely voiced Gerald Richards, testified the doyenne’s signatures were not forged. During cross-examination, Joel J. Seidemann, an assistant district attorney, read from a frayed, crumbling handwriting analysis book published in the 1940s to refute Richards’ testimony. The two argued back and forth over how the “o” and “r” of Brooke Astor’s signatures were written before Richards stepped down.
The trial started April 27. The case at first generated buzz with the glitz of witnesses like Barbara Walters and Henry Kissinger, but the weeks have clearly taken a toll. The courtroom on Wednesday was practically empty, and the lawyers for both sides openly mocked and sniped at one another during arguments heard by Judge A. Kirke Bartley Jr. without the jury present.
Jurors were excused until Monday, but the plodding case in State Supreme Court in Manhattan is not over yet — closing arguments are expected early next week.
