A New York City event planner who is accused of shoving an 87-year-old Broadway vocal coach to the ground on a New York City sidewalk – an unprovoked attack that ultimately led to the woman’s death – is being held without bail for being a flight risk.
Lauren Pazienza, 26, was indicted last month on charges of manslaughter and assault after allegedly shoving Gustern while calling her a ‘b***h’ in the Manhattan neighborhood of Chelsea on March 10.
The sickening attack unfolded around 8.30 p.m. on March 10, when Gustern was walking towards a cab outside her Chelsea apartment building when she was pushed from behind.
She was helped back to her feet by a cyclist and was taken to the hospital ‘covered in blood’ after hitting her head on the cement, and died from her injuries five days later.
Before she lost consciousness, Gustern told police and a friend that an unfamiliar woman crossed the street, approached her directly, called her a ‘b***h’ and shoved her ‘as hard as she had ever been hit in her life.’
Prosecutors say Pazienza stayed in the area for about 20 minutes after the attack, arguing with her fiancé on a nearby sidewalk before returning to the scene of the crime to watch as an ambulance arrived.
Soon after the attack, she went back home to Astoria, Queens, quit her job at a store in Chelsea, deleted all social media and took down a website advertising her wedding this June, prosecutors say.
The day after Gustern died, she allegedly fled for her parents’ home on Long Island and later stashed her phone at her aunt’s house so police wouldn’t find it.
Pazienza’s attorney told DailyMail.com on last month that there is no proof that she pushed Gustern.
‘What they have is a photo of someone who looks like my client getting on the subway. This attack did not happen on the subway,’ said lawyer Arthur Aidala, a high-powered defense attorney who has previously represented Rudolph Giuliani, Harvey Weinstein, and Roger Ailes.
Attorney and law professor Dmitriy Shakhnevich said evidence that Pazienza deleted her social media profiles, quit her job and fled to her parents’ Long Island home after the incident will make defending her a difficult job for her lawyers.
‘Flight is perfect evidence of guilt,’ he said. ‘That will be presented to a jury. You’re gonna have the prosecutor say, ‘Why would she run if she’s not guilty? Why would she not stick around?’
‘The defense lawyer would get up there and say she was scared and afraid. You’re gonna get the same thing you do in every case,’ added Shakhnevich, an adjunct professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
Both Discioarro and Shakhnevich believe that more evidence is needed to determine whether more serious charges could be on the way.
In New York, a person is guilty of first degree manslaughter when, ‘with intent to cause serious physical injury to another person, he causes the death of such person or of a third person.’
Before she lost consciousness, Gustern told police and a friend that an unfamiliar woman crossed the street, approached her directly, called her a ‘b***h’ and shoved her ‘as hard as she had ever been hit in her life.’
Prosecutors say Pazienza stayed in the area for about 20 minutes after the attack, arguing with her fiancé on a nearby sidewalk before returning to the scene of the crime to watch as an ambulance arrived, according to surveillance footage from the area.
‘The prosecutors gonna say, ‘With the facts I have, she pushed an old lady to the ground, she stayed to see what kind of trouble she was in, when she saw the cops were looking for her, she knew she had to get out of there, she left the city and erased her social media and website and tried to disappear, and she only turned herself in when it became national news,’ Discioarro said.
‘This is not a good case for the defense. She has no sympathy.
‘I can’t imagine going to trial in this case,’ he added. ‘Unless the prosecution makes a ridiculous offer, I just don’t think this is a sympathetic client, and the media coverage is not sympathetic to her. What’s your argument, that you’re allowed to push old ladies in the street?’
Shakhnevich says the manslaughter charge is likely to remain just that.
‘That is as strong as they seem to be able to allege right now. Unless they can allege that she intended to kill, which is a stretch it seems, then manslaughter is as good as you’re gonna get,’ he said.
She faces up to 25 years in jail if convicted.
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