Having Celebrity Friends Still Means Prison

I am so disappointed in Whoopi Goldberg and Al Roker, they wrote letters as character witnesses for Anthony Marshall in his sentencing.  Who is Anthony Marshall?  He is the 85 year old son of  Brooke Astor, the late New York philanthropist and socialite.  Why was he on trial?  He and his attorney, Francis Morrissey, were convicted of multiple counts of grand larceny and fraud.  Assistant District Attorney Joel Seidemann summed it up best saying,

“These defendants, two morally depraved individuals, preyed on a physically and mentally ill 101-year-old woman to steal millions of dollars — dollars that she had intended to go to help the lives of ordinary New Yorkers.”

That’s right this wealthy senior citizen was ripping off his own mother.  Who turned him in?  His own son, Philip Marshall, who declined to comment after the sentencing. It was his concern about his grandmother’s care in her final years, which the younger Marshall’s attorney deemed “elder abuse,” that eventually led to his father’s indictment.

Anthony Marshall was convicted last October of 13 felonies and one misdemeanor. The felony of grand larceny in the first degree carried a sentence of one to three years. The other counts will run concurrently.  During the trial, Marshall was portrayed as a cold, calculating man who spent the last years of his socialite and philanthropist mother’s life stealing her fortune to line his pockets as he denied her necessary medication and doctor’s visits.

During trial testimony, Marshall’s attorneys called no character witnesses to come to his defense.  But before sentencing for the crimes, friends and celebrities who knew Marshall well wrote letters to the court trying to show what they believe was his true character.

Apparently Marshall’s non-celebrity friends told the court, Marshall was a loyal, churchgoing man, a Purple Heart recipient wounded in Iwo Jima during World War II and a son who tried but could never live up to the high ideals of his socialite mother. Oh, so that makes it all better– he was godfearing and part of the Greatest Generation, but mommy didn’t puff up his ego enough.  That’s why he decided to rob her blind and neglect her medical care. This is where those clowns Whoopi Goldberg and Al Roker come in.

Whoopi Goldberg told a judge in her letter that she met Marshall and his wife 10 years ago when Goldberg moved into a building on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Her interactions with Marshall, she wrote, gave her an insight into his relationship with his mother, and in turn taught her about how fame can affect family dynamics.

“I also understand what it must be like for my own daughter to be around my fame,” she wrote. “I am not comparing myself to Mrs. Astor, but I’ve seen how you can be dismissed as not being good enough, or hip enough, and seeing it happen to Tony made me make sure that it didn’t happen to my own daughter.”

NBC’s “Today” show weatherman, Al Roker, also came to Marshall’s defense, having met him at his church 10 years ago.

He argued Marshall had suffered enough, paying a price greater than any sentence a judge could hand down — seeing his son turn on him during the trial and being portrayed in a negative light each day.

“Given his advanced age and deteriorating health, justice may be better served by turning a compassionate eye towards this good son, father and patriot and finding it in your heart not to add ‘prisoner’ to Anthony Marshall’s otherwise unblemished resume,” Roker wrote in his letter to the court.

Goldberg, too, wrote she believed “breaking this man” by putting him in prison was not the right punishment.

“Please don’t put him in jail,” she wrote at the end of her letter. “It would only amount to an unnecessary cruelty that would serve no real purpose. Hasn’t Tony been through enough?”

Are they nuts!  This is not Bernie Maddoff ripping off strangers who were looking blindly for sky high investment returns. Anthony Marshall ripped off his OWN mother.  Its a shame that Mrs. Astor is deceased, I’m sure she would have a lot to say about, “unnecessary cruelty”.

He harbored resentment for years, he took atrocious actions, and now he shall reap what he has sown.  So what if he’s 85 and in poor health.  He was acting with impunity, until his son called attention to the crimes. At this point he’s lucky, he faced a minimum of one to three years, or as much as eight to 25 years in state prison.