Narcy Novack back in court to fight for marital assets
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Narcy Novack / AP
She’s baaaacccckkk!
Narcy Novack, serving a life sentence for plotting the attacks that left her husband and mother-in-law dead, will return to federal court in White Plains on Wednesday for a hearing on the government’s effort to seize nearly all her assets.
Novack and her brother, Cristobal Veliz, were convicted last year in the 2009 attacks in which her husband and mother-in-law were beaten to death. Ben Novack Jr. was killed July 12, 2009, in the couple’s suite at the Hilton Rye Town, where his company was running an Amway convention. His mother, Bernice Novack, was killed at her Fourt Lauderdale home three months earlier.
Prosecutors sought the forfeiture of $95,000 in convention proceeds that Narcy Novack took from the hotel in Rye Brook as well as the couple’s properties, cars, boats and other assets.
Novack in February challenged the forfeiture of most of the items — including the couple’s two Fort Lauderdale properties, a replica Batmobile, five other cars, three boats and some bank accounts — arguing that she was entitled to half of each because they were marital property.
Prosecutors worked out a solution with Novack’s trial lawyer, Howard Tanner, and the Florida lawyer handling Ben Novack’s estate. Once they agreed what was jointly held marital property, those items would be sold and half the money put in escrow. It would be used to pay off any court-ordered fines and forfeitures and the remainder would be left for Narcy Novack.
But Tanner was replaced as Novack began her appeal and the new lawyer was not representing Novack on the forfeiture. The proposal will be offered to Novack and a second new lawyer at Wednesday’s hearing before U.S. District Judge Kenneth Karas.
Both siblings were sentenced to life in prison. Narcy Novack was sent to a prison in Tallahassee, Fla., although she is now at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. Her brother is imprisoned in Kentucky.
Also appearing Wednesday will be lawyers for Ronald Novack, Ben Novack’s adopted half brother, who is planning a wrongful death lawsuit against Narcy Novack.
The lawyers, John Loalbo and Blair Zwillman, are opposed to the forfeiture effort. They acknowledged on Tuesday the irony that they were siding with the woman who plotted the death of their client’s brother. But the reason was simple: They want her to have something they can go after.
“It is what it is,” Loalbo said.
Narcy Novack, serving a life sentence for plotting the attacks that left her husband and mother-in-law dead, will return to federal court in White Plains on Wednesday for a hearing on the government’s effort to seize nearly all her assets.
Novack and her brother, Cristobal Veliz, were convicted last year in the 2009 attacks in which her husband and mother-in-law were beaten to death. Ben Novack Jr. was killed July 12, 2009, in the couple’s suite at the Hilton Rye Town, where his company was running an Amway convention. His mother, Bernice Novack, was killed at her Fourt Lauderdale home three months earlier.
Prosecutors sought the forfeiture of $95,000 in convention proceeds that Narcy Novack took from the hotel in Rye Brook as well as the couple’s properties, cars, boats and other assets.
Novack in February challenged the forfeiture of most of the items — including the couple’s two Fort Lauderdale properties, a replica Batmobile, five other cars, three boats and some bank accounts — arguing that she was entitled to half of each because they were marital property.
Prosecutors worked out a solution with Novack’s trial lawyer, Howard Tanner, and the Florida lawyer handling Ben Novack’s estate. Once they agreed what was jointly held marital property, those items would be sold and half the money put in escrow. It would be used to pay off any court-ordered fines and forfeitures and the remainder would be left for Narcy Novack.
But Tanner was replaced as Novack began her appeal and the new lawyer was not representing Novack on the forfeiture. The proposal will be offered to Novack and a second new lawyer at Wednesday’s hearing before U.S. District Judge Kenneth Karas.
Both siblings were sentenced to life in prison. Narcy Novack was sent to a prison in Tallahassee, Fla., although she is now at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. Her brother is imprisoned in Kentucky.
Also appearing Wednesday will be lawyers for Ronald Novack, Ben Novack’s adopted half brother, who is planning a wrongful death lawsuit against Narcy Novack.
The lawyers, John Loalbo and Blair Zwillman, are opposed to the forfeiture effort. They acknowledged on Tuesday the irony that they were siding with the woman who plotted the death of their client’s brother. But the reason was simple: They want her to have something they can go after.
“It is what it is,” Loalbo said.
