Lawyer charged in Astor forgery denies guilt

NEW YORK – An attorney who once was suspended from practicing law pleaded not guilty Friday to charges that he helped Brooke Astor’s son loot the philanthropist’s $198 million estate.

Francis X. Morrissey Jr., 65, a trusts and estates lawyer, faces charges of forgery, criminal possession of a forged instrument, scheme to defraud and conspiracy in connection with changes made to the socialite’s will. Prosecutors claim he forged Astor’s name when she was too weak to sign for herself.

“Under the guise of representing Mrs. Astor, when she had diminished mental capacity, the defendant in reality worked himself into a position to collect millions of dollars when she died,” said prosecutor Peirce Moser.

Morrissey’s attorney, Pery Krinsky, said after court that his client “categorically denies any misconduct and looks forward to his day in court, when he will be vindicated.”

Anthony Marshall, Astor’s 83-year-old son, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to grand larceny, scheme to defraud, conspiracy and other charges.

Astor, known for decades as the doyenne of New York society and philanthropy, gave away nearly $200 million to institutions before dying in August at age 105. She left a fortune estimated at more than $130 million and a trust valued at more than $60 million.

In the final year of her life, the nasty family feud over her care was splashed all over the city’s tabloids – including allegations that she was forced to sleep in a torn nightgown on a couch that smelled of urine while subsisting on a diet of pureed peas and oatmeal. Those allegations were never substantiated.

The 18-count indictment unsealed earlier this week charges that Marshall and Morrissey took advantage of Astor’s diminished mental capacity – she had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2001 – to defraud her and the charities named in her will out of millions of dollars.

Prosecutors allege that Morrissey and Marshall induced her to execute amendments to her will leaving more money to Marshall and higher fees for Morrissey.

Morrissey is accused of forging Astor’s signature on one of the amendments.

Morrissey was suspended from practicing law for two years in the mid-1990s for taking $925,000 from a client’s escrow account without the client’s permission. He was reinstated in 1998.

While he has been accused of using undue influence to get elderly clients to name him as a principal beneficiary of their estates, he had never been criminally charged until this week.

Astor’s money was left to her by her husband, Vincent Astor, who died in 1959. Vincent Astor was the great-great-grandson of John Jacob Astor, who made a fortune in fur trading and New York real estate.

Astor’s oft-quoted motto summed up her prodigious generosity in nine words: “Money is like manure; it should be spread around.”