Anthony Marshall, the accused swindling son of philanthropist Brooke Astor, came out swinging in closing arguments yesterday, relying on the same one-two punch he used in opening statements way back in April.
One: Alzheimer’s patients like his famous mother have good moments and bad moments. Two: All the lawyers in the room on the two occasions when she bequeathed him a total $60 million — money previously long promised to charity — say she that at those moments, she was just fine.
“She manifestly displayed competence, intelligence, insightfulness and awareness,” Marshall lawyer Frederick Hafetz told a Manhattan Supreme Court jury, reminding them of defense testimony that the super-lucid Astor offered the men tea, posed a question about a new clause concerning successor executors and cheekily asked if her son and his wife were “happy in bed.”
Marshall’s closings will continue this morning. Then come closings by prosecutors, who will likely remind jurors of their own side’s testimony showing Astor told her doctor she felt “gaga” on the morning of one of the disputed signings and afterward asked her nurse who “those men” were and what she’d just done.
Marshall, 86, is fighting conspiracy and grand larceny charges carrying a maximum 25 years. Closings for Marshall’s co-defendant, estates lawyer Francis Morrissey, who is charged with conspiracy and forgery, concluded yesterday morning.
The nearly four-month long swindle trial has included testimony by a constellation of luminaries from Astor’s undisputed rein as the former queen of New York society, including Henry Kissenger, Barbara Walters and the heads of major institutions that benefitted over the years from Astor’s millions. Astor died in 2005 at age 107.