Guilty Verdict Found in the Brooke Astor Case

Brooke Astor's son Anthony Marshall was found guilty on 14 of the 16 counts against him, including one of two first-degree grand larceny charges. Marshall was found not guilty on the other grand larceny charge and on a charge of falsifying business records.

A second defendant in the case, Francis Morrissey Jr., was convicted of forgery charges. He was a lawyer who did estate planning for Brooke Astor.

In terms of some of the charges that Marshall faced, he was convicted of giving himself an unauthorized raise of about $1 million for managing Brooke Astor’s finances. The contention in the trial was that because of Brooke Astor's Alzheimer's disease, she was incapable of making the decisions that Marshall contended she made, which were quite naturally very favorable to him financially.

The defense, on the other hand, had stipulated that Brooke Astor was lucid, and made the decisions on her own. The jury did not agree.

The investigation was begun after a complaint, by, ironically, Brooke Astor's grandson, Philip Marshall. Besides being the socialite's grandson, Philip Marshall is also Anthony Marshall's son.

Both Anthony Marshall and Francis Morrissey Jr. could be sentenced to at least 25 years in prison as a result of the Brooke Astor verdict. Their sentencing will not be until December 8th, however, so they will have a long time to mull over their potential fates.

Written by Michael Santo
Exclusively for HULIQ.com