Astor Son Loses Claim
Juror Complaint Is Rejected by Judge
Chad Bray
July 30, 2010
The Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703578104575397662045599980.html
A judge let stand the conviction of socialite Brooke Astor’s son for allegedly stealing millions of dollars from her before her death three years ago.
Anthony Marshall was convicted last October of grand larceny and other charges in an alleged scheme to loot Ms. Astor’s fortune in the final years of her life. Mr. Marshall, 86 years old, was sentenced to one to three years in prison in December, but has remained free on bail pending appeal.
On Thursday, a New York judge rejected arguments that a juror was intimidated by another juror during deliberations and eventually acquiesced to pressure to convict Mr. Marshall and Francis Morrissey, a lawyer disbarred after the conviction.
The verdict came two days after a note was sent saying one juror, Judith DeMarco, felt threatened, the judge said.
“It is apparent that by the time the verdict was reached any subjective pressure or coercion Ms. DeMarco may have experienced had long since been attenuated and had no impact on her ultimate verdict,” New York Supreme Court Justice A. Kirke Bartley said.
Ms. Astor died in 2007 at the age 105. She was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease at the time of her death.
“We believe we have good grounds for reversal of the court’s decision and intend to appeal,” said John Cuti, a lawyer for Mr. Marshall. A lawyer for Mr. Morrissey didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Lawyers for Mr. Marshall and Mr. Morrissey had argued that Ms. DeMarco, the juror, told an investigator in December that she was ashamed she caved into pressure from other jurors and voted to convict despite her belief the men were innocent. She later declined to sign an affidavit to that effect, the judge said.
Prosecutors had argued in part that the other jurors each provided them with an affidavit denying she had been threatened or coerced.
Ms. DeMarco didn’t respond to a request for comment Thursday.
In the decision Thursday, the judge said he responded to a note that a juror felt threatened in the ninth day of deliberations by urging the jurors to continue their deliberations with civility.
“No sworn statements of any juror indicate anything more than Ms. DeMarco being upset with her fellow juror,” the judge said Thursday.
The judge noted Ms. DeMarco, an employee of Bloomberg LP, told the news organization for a story after the verdict that: “I did ultimately what I felt was the right thing.”
Judge Refuses to Vacate Verdicts in Astor Trial
James Barron
July 29, 2010
The New York Times
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/29/judge-refuses-to-vacate-verdicts-in-astor-trial/
The judge in the trial of Brooke Astor’s son denied a defense motion to vacate convictions against him and a lawyer who had done estate planning for Mrs. Astor, the doyenne of Manhattan society until her death in 2007.
Mrs. Astor’s son, Anthony D. Marshall, and the lawyer, Francis X. Morrissey Jr., had asked Justice A. Kirke Bartley Jr. of State Supreme Court in Manhattan to throw out their convictions because of an incident involving a holdout juror, Judi DeMarco.
On Oct. 5, the ninth day of deliberations in the six-month trial, the jury forewoman sent Justice Bartley a note that said one juror, later identified as Ms. DeMarco, felt “personally threatened by comments made by another juror,” later identified as Ms. Fernandez.
Mr. Marshall and Mr. Morrissey were on trial for fraud, accused of tricking Mrs. Astor — by then more than 100 years old and suffering from Alzheimer’s disease — into altering her will to funnel millions of dollars to Mr. Marshall, 86.
Justice Bartley later sentenced Mr. Marshall to one to three years in prison. Mr. Marshall has remained free while he appealed the conviction, as has Mr. Morrissey.
In his 24-page opinion, Justice Bartley said that Ms. Fernandez’s behavior in the jury room “simply did not rise to the level of juror misconduct,” even, the judge wrote, when viewed “in the light most favorable to the defense.”
“The entire incident was by all accounts over in less than two minutes,” Justice Bartley wrote, adding that “Ms. Fernandez’s conduct consisted merely of her banging on the table in frustration and yelling at DeMarco.” Justice Bartley said Ms. Fernandez directed an epithet at Ms. DeMarco after Ms. DeMarco remarked that she found the judge’s instructions about one piece of evidence unsatisfactory.
Justice Bartley wrote that Ms. DeMarco had cried after the jurors sent him a note. The judge said that her crying only “confirms that tensions were running high.” He said it was not an indication that “she was unable to deliberate fairly, nor that she failed to follow the court’s instructions not to give up her firmly held beliefs.”
The judge noted that many of the jurors had credited “a ’speech’ or ‘intervention’ made by juror Larry Kaagan the day after the incident with setting the deliberations back on course.”
“In his comments to the jury, Kaagan stressed, and all the jurors agreed, that the jury room had to be a ’safe place to disagree,’ ” the judge wrote.
Ms. Fernandez said on Wednesday that she was pleased by Justice Bartley’s decision. “I knew the judge would look at everything and realize what happened,” she said. “I always said exactly what I did and I said and I’m very proud of what I did.” She said her outburst had “opened things up, and we came back with a just verdict.”
Kenneth E. Warner, one of Mr. Marshall’s lawyers, said he would appeal the ruling. A call to Mr. Morrissey’s lawyer, Thomas P. Puccio, was not immediately returned.
NYC judge denies motion to overturn conviction of Astor’s son based on scared juror
Associated Press
July 29, 2010
The Washington Examiner
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/nation/nyc-judge-denies-motion-to-overturn-conviction-of-astors-son-based-on-scared-juror-99555699.html
NEW YORK–The judge in the Brooke Astor case has denied a motion to overturn the convictions of the New York philanthropist’s son and his co-defendant.
The defense wanted to vacate the convictions last October of Astor’s son, Anthony Marshall, and lawyer Francis X. Morrissey Jr. based on allegations a juror went along with the verdict because she felt intimidated.
Marshall and Morrissey were convicted of exploiting Astor’s dementia to steal millions of dollars from her fortune. They are free on bail pending appeal.
Juror Judi DeMarco told defense lawyers that a dispute during deliberations frightened her into agreeing to the guilty verdicts.
In a ruling Thursday, Justice A. Kirke Bartley denied the motion to overturn the verdict.
A lawyer for Marshall says he will appeal.
Astor died in 2007 at age 105.
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