The Brooke Astor swindle trial reached a major milestone yesterday: Manhattan prosecutors rested their direct case after presenting 72 witnesses during 17 weeks of testimony.
In seeking to prove that Astor’s 86-year-old son, Anthony Marshall, strong-armed his frail, philanthropist mother out of more than $60 million in bequests, prosecutors called dozens of her beneficiaries and friends — Barbara Walters and Henry Kissinger testified on the same day back in May — and dozens more of her health-care providers and staff.
At 3 p.m., jurors grinned when Assistant DA Joel Seidemann announced, “The prosecution rests,” but fellow prosecutors reminded him they still needed to read stipulations into the record.
Fifteen minutes later, Seidemann declared, “We fully rest.”
The first defense witness was a former handwriting expert for the FBI who testified that Astor’s signature was not forged on the will she revised at age 102.
The trial will take a two-week hiatus beginning next week, with closing statements expected in early September.