NYC socialite accused in elderly shove death bullied classmates in school

NEW YORK – EXCLUSIVE: A classmate of New York Metropolis socialite and manslaughter suspect Lauren Pazienza mentioned she bullied him at school.

Pazienza, 26, is dealing with first-degree manslaughter and second-degree assault costs after allegedly shoving an 87-year-old Broadway vocal coach to her loss of life in an unprovoked assault. 

A former classmate who spoke to Fox Information Digital on the situation of anonymity claimed that when he moved a number of doorways down from Pazienza within the second grade, she started bullying him.

The defendant “all the time had a loopy look in her eyes,” the classmate mentioned, alleging that she would kick him and name different children names. He additionally claimed {that a} instructor needed to transfer their seats aside in a single classroom as a result of bullying.

At Ward Melville Excessive Faculty situated within the historic, middle-class city of Setauket, New York, the place Pazienza grew up, a instructor instructed Fox Information Digital that her colleagues with youngsters who went to high school with Pazienza recalled her as “odd.” She graduated from the highschool in 2013.

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A Manhattan decide set Pazienza’s bail at $500,000 or $1 million bond throughout a Tuesday afternoon courtroom look, regardless of prosecutors’ request that the 26-year-old lady be remanded.

“We’re happy that the Court docket granted bail to Ms. Pazienza, and we anticipate her to be launched within the coming days,” Pazienza’s legal professional, Arthur Aidala, who has represented shoppers starting from Rudy Giuliani to Harvey Weinstein, instructed Fox Information Digital. “We anxiously await the manufacturing of the invention materials by the District Legal professional’s Workplace. The Pazienza household joins the remainder of the Metropolis in grieving the lack of Barbara Gustern.”

Pazienza refused to take a seat down with a Fox Information Digital reporter Wednesday afternoon inside Rikers Island.  When Pazienza walked into the visiting room, she was carrying a grey prison-issue jumpsuit, no handcuffs and her purple hair was down and barely raveled.

Pazienza is accused of pushing Barbara Gustern — the aged sufferer whom she didn’t know — violently to the bottom within the space of West twenty eighth Avenue and Eighth Avenue on March 10 simply earlier than 8:30 p.m. ET. She then fled the scene. Pazienza additionally allegedly known as Gustern a “b—” earlier than the assault, based on a felony grievance.

Gustern’s head was bleeding after the autumn, and eyewitnesses rushed to assist her stand after the alleged assault. Earlier than shedding consciousness, the sufferer allegedly instructed a pal that Pazienza hit her “as arduous as she had ever been hit in her life,” the grievance states.

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Authorities rushed Gustern to the hospital and carried out life-saving measures, however she finally misplaced her mind operate within the hospital. Medical doctors put her on life assist earlier than saying her lifeless a number of days afterward March 15.

Barbara Gustern on this undated picture 
(MEGA)

Police later used surveillance footage to trace down their suspect and decided that she stayed within the space for greater than 20 minutes after the assault and was noticed having a bodily altercation with a person, believed to be her fiancé, roughly seven minutes after the sufferer was shoved, the grievance states. 

13 minutes after the assault, Pazienza was allegedly seen watching the ambulance because it arrived within the space to assist the sufferer and take her away. She and her fiancé allegedly left the world quickly after and had been seen getting into New York Metropolis’s Penn Station half-hour later. Footage additionally captured her arriving at her Astoria residence round 9:50 p.m. ET  in the identical garments she wore on the scene.

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Prosecutors additional allege that Pazienza then took steps to keep away from being caught, reminiscent of deleting her social media and her marriage ceremony web site, fleeing to her dad and mom’ Lengthy Island residence and stashing her cellular phone at a relative’s residence, the grievance states. 

Lauren Pazienza being led right into a New York Metropolis courthouse on March 22, 2022.
(Curtis Means)

However police obtained at the least two ideas figuring out Pazienza as their suspect. 

Aidala beforehand instructed reporters that his consumer has “been accused of a horrible act.”

“She’s a really ethical, proper, simply one that went to highschool, went to school, has a job, a fiancé, has a household. And for her she’s within the twilight zone. She’s destroyed,” he mentioned.

Lauren Pazienza being led right into a New York Metropolis courthouse on March 22, 2022 
(Curtis Means)

Pazienza’s household house is situated in Port Jefferson, New York. Sources instructed Fox Information Digital she attended the Style Institute of Know-how in Manhattan and labored on the high-end furnishings firm Roche Bobois earlier than she resigned from her place in December 2021.

Manhattan District Legal professional Alvin Bragg’s workplace mentioned Tuesday that Pazienza represents a critical flight threat after allegedly evading regulation enforcement for practically two weeks previous to her seize. She faces as much as 25 years in jail for the manslaughter cost. Pazienza’s subsequent courtroom look is scheduled for March 25.

Gustern was a longtime singing coach who labored with Broadway casts and music stars together with “Blondie” vocalist Debbie Harry, based on the New York Instances.