A Long Island woman who pleaded guilty to pushing a veteran Broadway singing coach Barbara Maier Gustern was denied a fair trial until her death because she is white, her lawyer says.
Lauren Pazienza, 27, attacked the 87-year-old singing coach on a sidewalk in Chelsea last March, forcibly pushing her to the ground.
On Wednesday, hours after the heiress of a major cesspool-draining empire pleaded guilty, her lawyer Arthur Aidala told DailyMail.com that she was discriminated against.
Aidala, whose standard rate is $950 an hour and whose past clients include Rudy Giuliani and Harvey Weinstein, said that if Pazienza wasn’t white, “she would never be charged with first-degree manslaughter.”
“It’s just ignorant, naive and inaccurate to say race has no role in this and the media coverage,” Aidala told DailyMail.com.
Lauren Pazienza is pleading guilty to manslaughter in the Manhattan Supreme Court on Wednesday for pushing Barbara Maier Gustern to her death in an unprovoked assault. Pazienza is pictured with her lawyer, Arthur Aidala
Broadway singing coach Barbara Maier Gustern died in a hospital five days after the random shoving attack in March 2022
“There’s only media attention because this is a white girl.
“If this was an African-American young woman pushing an African-American 87-year-old woman in Inwood, Manhattan, you might not even hear about it.”
Pazienza is expected to serve eight years for the murder – significantly less time behind bars than the 25-year prison sentence she risked receiving at trial. She will be sentenced on September 29.
Pazienza has been held on Rikers Island for over a year since the seemingly aimless attack.
Aidala told DailyMail.com that it was ridiculous that she was being held in jail before her trial.
“On the day of the arraignment I will be in court, in front of the judge,” Aidala said.
“Four or five cases before me were all African American men. They all had serious crime records. The prosecution didn’t even ask for bail.
“Now my little white girl doesn’t come with a single serious crime record. They wanted custody. Pre-trial detention means imprisonment, no matter how much money you put down.’
Pazienza’s high-profile lawyer Arthur Aidala (left) and her parents (right)
Pazienza, who has been held in Rikers since her report last year, will be sentenced on September 29
2022: Lauren Pazienza is indicted in the Manhattan Supreme Court for manslaughter over the death of Barbara Gustern. She was sent to prison because she was considered a flight risk
The police published these images of Pazienza and claimed that she was responsible for the attack. She turned herself in two days later
Gustern’s grandson AJ (left) said Pazienza is lucky to have been able to afford such a competent legal adviser
Pazienza sits next to her lawyer in tears on Wednesday. She has agreed to a plea deal that will put her behind bars for eight years
Aidala said he protested that the decision was unfair.
“I said to the judge, ‘Did you see what just happened, Judge? These five cases right in front of her, men with big criminal records, violent men, no bail. Then this young lady, 125 pounds, is the one who can’t leave. Her mother is here, her grandmother is here, and father.’
Gustern died five days after being pushed through Pazienza, and was hospitalized with severe head injuries.
It was later alleged that Pazienza, who did not know her victim, had crossed the street and called the singing coach “ab****” before pushing her.
Prior to the apparently random attack, Pazienza had drunk several glasses of wine with her fiancé as they celebrated the 100 days until their marriage. She may have also taken a Xanax.
“She’d had drugs, maybe two bottles of wine and a ton of marijuana,” Aidala said.
She had been kicked out of Chelsea Park, which was about to close, when she crossed the street and attacked Gustern.
Aidala told DailyMail.com that his client was unable to harm Gustern, and thus the allegations were unjustified.
He said they hoped to reduce her sentence.
‘She was bombed. If you’re that drunk, the law says you’re not allowed to form the intention, then they have to reduce it,” he said.
“Our expert says she was so drunk she couldn’t have guessed what she meant. She is now being interviewed by their expert. I will receive his report within the next three weeks.
“Their expert consistently works for the prosecution and my expert works for both sides, so I’m optimistic.”
“She had been on drugs, maybe two bottles of wine and a ton of marijuana,” attorney Arthur Aidala claimed outside a Manhattan courtroom in June.
Seen on a family vacation as a teenager, Pazienza appears to have led a life of privilege and later glamor in New York City high society before ending up behind bars
Pazienza is currently imprisoned on Rikers Island, but grew up in an affluent Long Island family and enjoyed the high society of Manhattan. She is seen above in photos from her teenage years
Pazienza’s fiancée previously revealed that she had “several glasses of wine” before the attack as the couple celebrated their engagement.
Aidala said the couple had a fight, and Pazienza stormed out, drank in the park, and confronted Gustern.
She then allegedly watched paramedics remove the frail elderly woman as blood seeped from her head.
Pazienza, prosecutors allege, then spent the next two weeks trying to cover her tracks. She’s quit her job, deleted her social media pages, and even stashed her cell phone at her aunt’s house on Long Island after fleeing her apartment in Astoria, where she lives with her fiancé who works at Microsoft.
After several weeks, she finally turned herself in to the NYPD after police released footage of her as a suspect in the attack.
Her former friends said it was “no surprise” that Pazienza was charged with the disturbing crime.
“What angered me the most was that her lawyer said she overcharged and was a good and moral person. She’s not,” someone said.
“I knew her very well at school and she was a real nuisance.”
According to the former classmate, “She is the epitome of white privilege. She never had to deal with consequences in her life. She was made possible by her parents, who helped her out of everything, but she called them stupid and basic.’
An acquaintance also said she was prone to mocking people and spoke in a derogatory way: “about fat people and deaf people… whoever.”
Footage shared with DailyMail.com also showed the 27-year-old appearing to mock deaf people, contorting her face as she screeched and pretending to be someone with a disability.