Lauren Pazienza of Port Jefferson on Long Island was arrested to face a manslaughter accusation in the death Barbara Maier Gustern. Police said it was the result “of an unprovoked and senseless attack.”
Gustern was hit on the head by a car and suffered severe injuries when she was struck March 10, 2010. A woman crossing the street came up behind Gustern and pushed her to the ground at West 23rd Street in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood. She died March 15.
Online court records didn’t list Pazienza as a representative. Information regarding her arraignment wasn’t immediately available.
Friends informed The New York Times by Gustern that she had just left her apartment to see a student perform after hosting a rehearsal in her apartment for a cabaret show.
Gustern was a well-known actor in the theatre world for many decades.
She worked with singers from the Broadway revival of “Oklahoma!” in 2019 to Taylor Mac, an experimental theater artist and recipient of a 2017 MacArthur “genius grants” Taylor Mac. Taylor Mac told The Times that she was “one the greatest humans I’ve ever encountered.”
Joe Gustern, her late husband, was also a singer with credits that included “The Phantom of the Opera” Broadway.
