Lawyer Calls Lindsay’s Friend a ‘Gold Digger’ : Court: There’s no law against it, her attorney responds. The closing arguments are made in trial of a suit filed by the late councilman’s stepson.

The former girlfriend of Gilbert Lindsay is a “gold digger” who played the late councilman “like a piano,” an attorney for Lindsay’s stepson said Friday.

But the attorney for Juanda Chauncie responded: “There is no law against being a gold digger.”

The remarks came in closing arguments in a 2 1/2-week trial stemming from a lawsuit brought by Lindsay’s estate and his stepson, Herbert Howard, against Chauncie, 40. She is accused of using undue influence to acquire money and property from Lindsay in the two years before his death in December, 1990.

A five-woman, seven-man Superior Court jury will begin deliberations on the case Monday. In his charge to the panel, Judge F. Ray Bennett said, “Undue influence in this case must amount to force and coercion, destroying free agency.”

Much of the trial has centered on the behavior and activities of Lindsay, particularly after he suffered a debilitating stroke in late 1988. Chauncie met the councilman in June, 1988, and eventually received gifts including three fur coats, diamond jewelry and real estate.

The estate is seeking proceeds from the property, valued at $240,500, and another $26,000 in checks written by Lindsay to Chauncie after the stroke.

Earlier this week, Bennett dismissed fraud, conspiracy and undue influence allegations in the lawsuit against Chauncie’s sister and mother, who were originally named as defendants. He also dismissed fraud and conspiracy allegations against Chauncie.

To determine whether Chauncie used undue influence, the only allegation remaining against her, there must be evidence of “excessive pressure by a dominant person over a subservient person,” Bennett said. “Advanced age, senility, illness and other factors of that nature are not determinative of whether undue influence exists.”

In his final arguments, Carl Douglas, representing the Lindsay estate, portrayed Chauncie as a woman who beguiled the councilman and then took unfair advantage of him.

“Gilbert Lindsay, God bless him, was under her spell,” Douglas said. “We were able to see how she worked her magic, how she batted her eyes, how she shook her hips to control him. She’s good at it.”

Chauncie, a wardrobe consultant who operates a clothing boutique out of her home, has worn samples of the outfits she sells each day of the trial. On Friday she wore a yellow and black two-piece suit.

During her relationship with Lindsay, who was 50 years older, Chauncie received monetary payments, including about $4,000 she received within a month of meeting him, according to testimony. Lindsay instructed his staff to pay bills ranging from $200 credit card charges to a $1,766 bank note. Lindsay put Chauncie’s name on one of his bank accounts and she withdrew $54,000 over one five-day period.

In her testimony, Chauncie often could not recall what her expenses were, what bills Lindsay paid or how she spent large amounts of money she received, such as a $57,000 loan she took out on a property Lindsay deeded to her.

“I spent it,” she testified with a shrug. She claimed she never asked Lindsay for anything, and said, “He told me to do whatever I wanted.”

Chauncie’s attorney, Geraldine Green, said no evidence had been presented to show Chauncie coerced Lindsay, but rather that he adored her. “I’m not going to ask you whether you like Miss Chauncie,” she said. “Even if you were to feel Miss Chauncie were a gold digger, and somehow the councilman decided he liked her, liked giving her money, there is no law against that.”