Metro

Emotional wife of Anthony Marshall breaks down during court appearance

“You’re not going to jail, honey.”

The swindling son of famed philanthropist Brooke Astor shared a showily tender moment in Manhattan Supreme Court this morning — his wife hugging him in his wheelchair and bursting into tears.

“You’re not going to jail, honey — it’s alright,” Anthony Marshall, 88, was told by his sobbing, twenty-years-younger wife, Charlene, after a judge agreed to a tentative June 17 date for Marshall’s prison surrender.

“I love you too!” she cried, as she wrapped a gray scarf around his neck before rolling him out of the courtroom.

It’s been three years since Marshall and his trusts and estates lawyer co-defendant, Francis Morrissey, were both sentenced to serve at least one year and as many as three.

The two pressured and tricked the Alzheimer’s-afflicted doyenne out of some $60 million in bequests, with Marshall awarding himself a $2 million “raise” for administering her estate, and Morrissey forging her signature on a key 2004 will amendment.

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice A. Kirke Bartley is allowing the pair to remain free on bail pending their latest appeal effort — an application to have their case considered by the state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals in Albany.

If that court decides not to take the case, the pair must surrender June 17, said Bartley, who presided over the pair’s 2009 trial.

“It’s good to see you all again, three years plus,” the judge told the eight lawyers in the room, and the brief hearing did have a reunion feel to it.

Defense lawyers and Astor trial veterans John Cuti and Kenneth Warner were present again for Marshall, as were his prosecutors, Joel Seidemann, Elizabeth Loewy and Peirce Moser.

“I want to make a statement,” Charlene announced as she left court. Charlene — who had been portrayed by the prosecution, Astor’s nurses, and even the judge as the greedy muse behind the swindling — was gently hushed by Warner.

The defense has maintained that Marshall simply wanted to provide for his wife in case he predeceased both her and his mother. Marshall, who appeared ashen today, said nothing aloud during or while leaving the hearing.