Metro

Brooke Astor’s son Anthony Marshall loses appeal, faces up to three years in prison

The late Brooke Astor’s son lost his appeal on his 2009 conviction for trying to steal $60 million from his mother.

Anthony Marshall has been free on appeal, holed up with wife Charlene in their Upper East Side apartment, since the verdict.

A mid level state court judge today, writing for a unanimous panel, said that Marshall’s arguments for appeal were “unavailing” and “against he weight of the evidence.”

Marshall, 88, now faces jail time of one to three years, the minimum sentence for his grand larceny for swiping $5.75 million that Astor had earmarked for charities.

“The record amply supports the jury’s determination that defendants are guilty of a scheme to defraud Mrs. Astor by fraudulently changing her will,” Justice Darcel Clark of New York State Appellate Court wrote, referring to Marshall and attorney Francis Morrissey, whom the son installed to carry out the fraud.

Clark added that the self-dealings occurred, “At a time when they knew her physical and mental condition precluded her from having the capacity to agree to any such changes.”

The five panel judicial decision tossed only one of 14 counts against Marshall, a minor grand larceny charge for having his mother’s social secretary work for his production company.

“Mrs. Astor supported Marshalls’ theater ventures,” Justice Clark noted. “Additionally, there is not evidence to suggest that the secretary’s work for Marshall caused her to forgo work she was supposed to do for Mrs. Astor.”

The 17-page decision recounts the charges against Marshall and Morrissey.

The higher court reaffirmed the 2009 finding that Morrissey forged Mrs. Astor’s signature on an addendum to her will in March 2004.

A year later Marshall stole “more than $2 million by granting himself a retroactive pay raise and using his mother’s money to buy a 55-foot yacht,” the decision recounts. “As well as to pay the yacht captain’s wages, the expense related to his wife’s property in Maine,” it adds.

Marshall, who was rolled into a court hearing on his appeal in December in a wheel chair, begged the court to spare him jail time given his age, health, military service, public service and lack of prior criminal history.

“We are not convinced that as an aged felon Marshall should be categorically immune from incarceration,” Justice Clark asserted. She added that the wayward son was unlikely to die in jail.

Clark found the additional arguments for leniency unconvincing.

“The lack of a criminal history is an ordinary circumstance that does not vitiate a prison term for obtaining millions of dollars through financial abuse of an elderly victim,” the justice declared.

Marshall’s attorney John Cuti said, “We’re obviously very disappointed. We’re reviewing the decision carefully and reviewing all of Mr. Marshall’s options.”

The Manhattan DA’s office released a statement regarding the decision.

“Today the Appellate Division overwhelmingly upheld the 2009 trial convictions of Anthony Marshall and Francis Morrissey, including the top count against Marshall, grand larceny in the first degree. The court also rejected Marshall’s argument that he should be spared the charge’s mandatory prison sentence. This trial underscored the importance of prosecuting elder abuse, particularly financial fraud perpetrated by those close to the victims. In the words of the appellate court, ‘the record amply supports the jury’s determination that Marshall committed a series of larcenous acts.’”