Lauren Pazienza pleads guilty to shoving NYC vocal coach, Barbara Maier Gustern to her death while stoned & drunk in a random attack before fleeing scene and leaving the woman for dead. Plea deal likely to see her only serve 8 years jail.
When privilege only goes so far. A NYC events coordinator on Wednesday pled guilty to fatally shoving an 87 year old vocal coach to her death in a random attack in Manhattan’s Chelsea district during a drunken stupor – but will only have to serve 8 years jail in a plea deal.
Lauren Pazienza, the scion of a Long Island cesspool empire, had faced up to 25 years in prison on manslaughter and assault raps for pushing Barbara Maier Gustern to the ground after calling the elderly woman a ‘bitch’ in the unprovoked attack on March 10, 2022 in Chelsea, which saw the events coordinator leave the woman for dead as she fled the scene.
Gustern, a respected singing coach who worked with Blondie front woman Debbie Harry and others, hit her head and died from her injuries five days later.
NYC events planner avoids serious jail time
During Wednesday’s hearing in Manhattan Supreme Court, Pazienza replied ‘yes’ when Justice Felicia Mennin asked her whether she had fatally pushed Gustern.
Pazienza, a former events organizer for a high-end French furniture company, pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree manslaughter before being led away in handcuffs, as her mother sat in the gallery silently sobbing.
Under the terms of her plea deal, Pazienza will be sentenced to eight years in prison followed by five years of post-release supervision, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said.
Gustern’s grandson AJ Maier Gustern following the hearing said Pazienza, was ‘lucky’ to cop the deal.
‘Lauren, you’re extremely lucky,’ the younger Gustern told reporters. ‘I hope you learn some empathy because apparently you’re incapable of empathy.’
Pazienza’s fatal shove of the respected coach came during a drunken rampage on a night of celebrating her upcoming nuptials with her fiancé at West 28th Street, prosecutors stated.
Long Island princess livid she couldn’t get what she wanted
The 5-foot-7 Pazienza encountered the 4-foot-11 Gustern after becoming enraged by a Parks Department worker kicking her and her beau out of Chelsea Park — where the pair had been eating dinner — because the green space was closing, according to the DA’s office.
After throwing her food at her lover, Pazienza crossed the street and randomly attacked Gustern — and to then walk away as the elderly woman bled from her head, officials said.
‘Notice how she didn’t go after some 6-foot-tall, 200-pound guy – she went after my 80-pound grandmother,’ Gustern’s grandson said after Wednesday’s hearing.
‘I have little to no forgiveness or sympathy for Lauren or her family,’ the grandson added. ‘This is what happens when you don’t raise a child right and you let them get away with whatever they want their entire lives.’
Following the attack, Pazienza took the subway back to her Astoria home, where she told her fiancé that she had shoved someone hours later.
Had attempted to avoid all culpability
After seeing on the news that the beloved vocal coach had died – and spotting herself in surveillance images released by police – Pazienza deleted all of her social media accounts, removed her wedding website and fled to Long Island to stay with family, the DA’s office said.
Prosecutors did not explain why they had agreed to the 8-year sentence after Pazienza in July rejected a deal that had called for her to serve 15 years in prison.
But Pazienza’s attorney, Arthur Aidala, has claimed that Pazienza was comatose on a cocktail of wine, weed and prescription drugs that she could not have possibly known what she was doing, or had the required ‘intent’ for the manslaughter charge to stick.
Pazienza’s father, Daniel, runs a successful waste disposal business in Holtsville that has been ranked as Suffolk County’s No. 1 cesspool firm for service and price.
Pazienza is scheduled to be sentenced on September 29.
