It ain’t easy being an Astor swindle-trial juror.
Not only have jurors had to sit through 16 weeks of prosecution testimony — the equivalent of 14,000 transcript pages — but a group of them was confronted by a deranged, knife-wielding woman while riding the subway home together after testimony Thursday.
The apparently crazy stranger jumped the forewoman, an assault that was heroically broken up by an alternate juror, according to a transcript of a closed-door discussion of the incident conducted by the judge and both sides in the Astor case yesterday.
The suspect was busted, though not before the forewoman received a few bruises, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Kirke Bartley noted.
“I have taken pains to observe her today,” the judge said. “She has been as attentive as she has been throughout the trial.”
Anthony Marshall is on trial for allegedly swindling his Alzheimer’s-addled mother, Brooke Astor, out of $60 million. The jury is expected to get the case by mid-September.