Myerson Case Called ‘Scheme to Buy Justice’

The prosecution in the Bess Myerson divorce-fixing trial on Friday summed up the case as a “scheme to buy justice in the courts of New York.”

“Look at this through any glass you want,” Assistant U.S. Atty. Stuart Abrams said in his rebuttal. Referring to defense charges that the prosecution presented a flawed case viewed through dirty windows, Abrams said: “This is not a soap opera, it’s a crime.”

The former Miss America is charged with hiring, while she was serving as the city’s commissioner of cultural affairs, the daughter of co-defendant Hortense Gabel to influence the then-state Supreme Court justice’s handling of Myerson’s lover’s divorce.

Myerson, Carl (Andy) Capasso, a millionaire sewer contractor, and Gabel face five counts each of conspiracy, mail fraud and the use of interstate facilities to carry out bribery. Myerson also is charged with obstructing justice.

Judge to Explain Law

The prosecutor wrapped up his rebuttal Friday afternoon, and the jury was to get the case on Monday. U.S. District Judge John Keenan said he would give the jury of six men and six women the case after delivering his charge on the law.

Myerson’s lawyer finished defense summations earlier Friday with a plea to jurors to find his client not guilty.

The defense maintains there is no evidence of an agreement to provide a job for Sukhreet Gabel in lieu of a favorable alimony decision. The justice’s ruling on Capasso’s alimony was later overturned by the Appellate Division of the state Supreme Court.

“I would submit to you the most important event in Bess Myerson’s life from birth until now and from now until her death will be the decision you make in this case,” Fred Hafetz, her lawyer, told the jurors.

Harking back to the British adage, “The Crown Never Loses,” emblazoned above the doors of the Old Bailey court in London, Hafetz said: “Don’t be afraid to look them in the eye and tell them the emperor has no clothes.”

He asked the panel not to be swayed by the prosecution’s “presumption of guilt . . . their overzealousness and manipulation of events.”

“I urge you . . . to bring a verdict of not guilty with respect to Bess Myerson--that would be doing justice in this case.”

If convicted, Myerson faces up to 30 years in prison and $513,000 in fines. Capasso and Gabel face terms of up to 25 years and fines of $263,000.