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Astor Jurors Celebrate Trial's End At Blue Ribbon
By
Jen Chung
Published Oct 9, 2009
Modified Oct 12, 2017
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By
Jen Chung
Published Oct 9, 2009
Modified Oct 12, 2017
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Some of the jurors who endured the 19-week-long trial surrounding the late Brooke Astor's estate explained their decision to find Astor's 85-year-old son guilty of grand larceny. Yvonne Fernandez, 52, said of Anthony Marshall, whom prosecutors said was driven to loot his mother's fortune for his wife Charlene, "It sort of reminded me, when I was in Brooklyn years ago and there was a blackout, and the lower-income people were stealing refrigerators and TVs, and they felt that was due to them," adding, "We all have our flaws, and you know, of course, the flaw here was greed."
Marshall, who now faces anywhere from 1 to 25 years in prison (barring an appeal), was accused of also mistreating his ailing mother in her final years. Fernandez blamed Marshall's wife Charlene (whom Astor did not like), "When she came into his life, she somehow took him away from his own family and then he went on this whole road with her. They just went down this path that they couldn't stop." Marshall's son Philip from his first marriage would agree with Fernandez—he said, "Charlene came from a family that ...had very little money. And she saw an opportunity."
Fernandez had apparently yelled at a fellow juror during deliberations about Marshall's decision to give himself a 200% raise, "Don’t you see what’s going on here?"—which made that juror feel threatened (the Times goes into detail about the jurors' thoughts); Fernandez said she had apologized while the "threatened juror" has not commented.
Another juror, Olga Zugo, said, "I feel very happy. It was a very congenial group." After announcing the verdict, the jurors went to have dinner at Blue Ribbon on Downing Street. A manager there told the TImes, "They seemed like regular people. I thought it was just people getting off work. I didn’t know it was them.”
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Anthony Marshall
blue ribbon
Brooke Astor
greed
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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