By DAREH GREGORIAN and LAURA ITALIANO
June 4, 2008
Brooke Astor's son says there's nothing criminal about a mother being generous with her only son.
Anthony Marshall says in papers filed in Manhattan Supreme Court that criminal charges alleging he was trying to swindle his mother out of millions should be thrown out because there's no proof she didn't want him to have her money and belongings.
The filing says Astor - the grand dame of New York society who died last year at 105 - was always generous with him, especially in her later years.
"From 1999 through the end of 2003, Mrs. Astor gave Mr. Marshall gifts totaling $14,500,000, plus the right to control $30 million in charitable donations," the papers say. Prosecutors charge that Marshall, 84, took advantage of her Alzheimer's to gain greater control over her $200 million fortune.
His filing includes a letter from Warren Whitaker, a lawyer who worked on Astor's will, describing her as being alert enough during a meeting to joke about a codicil allowing her son to leave property outright to his wife.
She asked, "Are they happy in bed?" Whitaker said.
