Lauren Pazienza NYC events coordinator to be released on $500K cash bond as parents seeks to come up with funds with lawyer saying woman intends to plead not guilty in shoving Barbara Gustern 87 year old voice coach to her death.
A NYC events coordinator accused of intentionally shoving a ‘beloved’ 87 year old voice coach to her death in an unprovoked attack earlier this month along a Manhattan street is set to make bail as her Long Island parents scurry to make $500,000 cash bond for their daughter.
Lauren Pazienza, 26, was arraigned on manslaughter charges yesterday for the death of Barbara Gustern, a vocal coach she is accused of pushing over on March 10, only to die four days later from injuries sustained after hitting her head on the pavement along a Chelsea street in Manhattan.
Prosecutors say Pazienza, who grew up in the affluent Long Island town Port Jefferson, approached Gustern at random, called her a ‘b***h’, pushed her and then fled.
She is then said to have watched as an ambulance crew took the frail older woman away with blood seeping from her head. Nearby surveillance camera caught her watching the unfolding scene.
It remained unclear what led to the events coordinator approaching the elderly woman and then shoving her to the ground.
Police arrest Lauren Pazienza, 26, in the fatal shoving of 87-year-old vocal coach Barbara Gustern. Pazienza, charged with manslaughter, turned herself in on the 12th day of a police search. #NYPD @CBSNewYork #barbaramaiergustern #BarbaraGustern pic.twitter.com/BcdYNSd1Jp
— Dave Carlin (@DaveCarlinTV) March 23, 2022
NYPD received tip NYC events coordinator was hiding at her parents Long Island home
Pazienza, prosecutors claim, Pazienza then spent the next two weeks trying to cover her tracks. She quit her job at furniture maker Roche Bobois, deleted her social media pages and even stashed her cell phone at her aunt’s house in Long Island after fleeing her Queens, Astoria apartment, where she lives with her Microsoft-employee fiancee.
It wasn’t until yesterday, March 22nd, that Pazienza turned herself in. The woman’s surrender to authorities came just days after the NYPD released new photos of her getting on the subway some 20 minutes after the attack.
Just a day earlier, NYPD detectives on Monday visited Pazienza’s parents’ Long Island home after receiving a tip that the wanted woman was hiding out there. During questioning, Pazienza’s father is alleged to have claimed that she was not at home, while declining to consent to a search of the property.
The following morning, Pazienza surrendered to police alongside her lawyer, who at the time maintained, no one could prove that Pazienza was the individual who pushed Gustern to her death.
‘What they have is a photo of someone who looks like my client getting on the subway,’ attorney Arthur Aidala told the dailymail.
‘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 lAidala, a high-powered defense attorney who has previously represented Rudolph Giuliani, Harvey Weinstein, and Roger Ailes.
Aidala maintained that his client will likely plead not guilty, adding that she is a ‘moral’ person and has been sent to the ‘Twilight Zone,’ with her arrest.
No known motive for unprovoked attack
Pazienza remains held in custody. Her parents Daniel and Caroline are scrambling to come up with the $500,000 bond that was set by a judge last night according to the dailymail.
Following Pazienza’s surrender and arraignment after a citywide manhunt, Gustern’s grandson AJ expressed his relief that she faces trial for the killing, with a potential prison sentence of up to 25 years.
‘It’s entering a new phase of grief,’ AJ told WCBS-TV. ‘There is a sense of closure.’
‘I’d like to stress, innocent until proven guilty,’ he said. ‘If she did do this, then I would like answers.’
He continued, addressing his grandmother’s accused killer: ‘But I’m still praying for you, and the karmic weight you’ve taken on is incredible. May God help you.’
Pazienza’s next court hearing has been set for Friday.
Services will be held for Gustern on Saturday, March 26, according to her Facebook page.
