The Brooke Astor swindle trial took another unexpected health twist this morning when her allegedly thieving son Anthony Marshall was carried out of the courthouse on a gurney after suffering a dizzy spell and falling inside a courthouse men’s room.
Marshall, 85, is on trial for allegedly strong-arming the dementia-suffering philanthropist out of more than $60 million in gifts and bequests she’d long promised to charities. Today, during the morning break, he lost his balance and banged his head on a stall door, said his lawyer, Kenneth Warner.
No injuries were visible on Marshall’s head as he was wheeled out of the courthouse an hour later, wearing an oxygen mask but looking alert and admirably unrumpled under the snug orange straps.
Yesterday, Marshall had forgone court entirely, instead going to see his doctor for yet another undisclosed complaint. That makes today the second day in a row that a health issue ground proceedings to a halt in the now 11-week-long trial.
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Kirke Bartley dismissed jurors today and yesterday with the request that they not speculate about the reason for their day off.
“I do anticipate we will continue taking testimony tomorrow,” the judge told jurors this morning before setting them free.
Marshall has been in frail health since getting indicted two years ago. In October, he underwent open heart surgery. His lawyers have also said he suffered a mini-stroke last month, then fell off his treadmill during a cardio-workout prescribed after the stroke — giving himself a slight concussion. He also wears a pacemaker and walks with a cane.
“He’s 85 years old. He had open heart surgery, and then this trial began within the time period when most people are recuperating from that,” said Warner. “Instead of recuperating, he’s on trial.”
Marshall’s topple interrupted the beginning of testimony by Astor’s former nurse, Pearline Noble, who’s set to tell jurors about how Marshall and his co-defendant estates lawyer literally dragged the invalid woman into a drawing room full of lawyers so she could sign over her fortune, and about her confusion and terror afterward.
Astor was so mentally far gone at the time, Noble used to entertain her by singing with her “How Much is That Doggie in the Window,” prosecutors have said. “Who are those men? What did I just do?”
Noble will say Astor asked once the signing was done, prosecutors promised jurors in opening statements.