New York attorney Arthur Aidala, who has represented Rudolph Giuliani, Harvey Weinstein, Roger Ailes and Alan Dershowitz, apparently has a new high-profile client: Lauren Pazienza, the Long Island woman charged with manslaughter in the shoving death of Broadway vocal coach Barbara Maier Gustern.
Aidala, a former Fox News legal analyst who currently hosts the New York-based radio show The Arthur Aidala Power Hour, was reported by Fox News today to be the attorney who arranged for Pazienza to turn herself in to the NYPD.
On his radio show and podcast last night, Aidala said he had been contacted on Saturday morning to work on “a big case you’re going to hear about tomorrow or the next day.”
The Daily Mail quoted Aidala today commenting on the widely circulated photos and video of Pazienza taken as she entered a subway station on the night of the shoving. “What they have is a photo of someone who looks like my client getting on the subway,” Aidala told the Daily Mail. “This attack did not happen on the subway.”
Aidala is expected to represent Pazienza at her arraignment today.
Gustern, 87, was heading toward a cab outside her Chelsea apartment on the evening of March 10 when she was pushed to the ground from behind, suffering severe head trauma. She died at New York’s Bellevue Hospital five days after the attack without regaining consciousness.
In a Facebook post following the attack, Gustern’s friend Barbara Bleier, who was at Gustern’s apartment the night of the attack, described what she saw. “Within a few minutes, there was a pounding on the lobby door, and a young man was helping a badly wounded and bleeding Barbara into the lobby,” Bleier wrote. “She, and the young man were able to tell us that she had been attacked by a woman, likely in her 30’s, and to describe the woman a bit.”
In her now-deleted LinkedIn page, Pazienza was identified as an events coordinator for a French furniture brand with showrooms in Manhattan. Pazienza also had posted photos and announcements about her upcoming wedding.
Pazienza, 26, is a native of Port Jefferson, Long Island, but more recently resided in Queens. She was charged today with manslaughter after turning herself in at the NYPD’s 10th Precinct in the Chelsea neighborhood. Police do not believe Pazienza and Gustern were acquainted, and have called the shoving random and unprovoked.
Deadline has reached out to Aidala’s law firm for comment.
In a video tweet posted today by NBC reporter Erica Byfield, Pazienza is seen being escorted out of the Chelsea police precinct house for her court appearance. The suspect did not reply to reporters who shouted “Why did you do it?”
This just happened in Chelsea. @NYPDnews says 26yo Lauren Pazienza turned herself in. She covered her face with her hair as officers led her out of the 10th pct. She’s accused of pushing and killing 87yo Barbara Gustern. pic.twitter.com/hCFBwbSrFo
— Erica Byfield (@EricaByfield4NY) March 22, 2022
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