Defense lawyer in Bucks socialite’s insurance fraud trial invokes Martin Luther King, John Gotti

Invoking the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and mobster John Gotti, a defense attorney spun a narrative Monday that the government and a major insurance company were conspiring against a 71-year-old Bucks County socialite who simply tried to cash in a substantial insurance claim.

In his closing argument in the three-week trial of Claire Risoldi in Doylestown, lawyer Jack McMahon quoted King as saying, “The time is always right to do what is right." As for Gotti, the late boss of New York’s Gambino crime family: "I never lie, because I don’t fear anyone. You only lie when you’re afraid.”

McMahon sought for the better part of three hours to poke holes in the prosecution’s case. Risoldi, known for throwing lavish fund-raisers for county Republicans, was first charged in 2014 with attempting to defraud insurer AIG out of $20 million, and is standing trial on charges of insurance fraud, forgery, receiving stolen property, and witness intimidation.

McMahon said the government was using “smoke and mirrors,” and had concocted theories not borne out by evidence, in its “desire to get something on Claire Risoldi.” He also attacked the insurance adjuster, calling him a liar.

But Linda Montag, Pennsylvania senior deputy attorney general, repeated her central thesis that Risoldi and her family had conspired to dupe insurers after three fires since 2009 at the family’s 10-acre New Hope estate, Clairemont. Montag said the case had reached her desk “because of what Claire did — not because we work with AIG.”

The flamboyant Risoldi, who wore a hat in the courtroom, did not testify during the trial. She had insured $10 million worth of jewelry she claimed had been bought before 1965 and given to her by her late husband, then claimed it was stolen after a fire. No jewelry has been recovered.

McMahon said Risoldi’s insurance claims were legitimate, pointing out that AIG had bought the policy on Risoldi’s jewelry before a 2013 fire, and had cashed the $128,000 check she submitted for the coverage. Her appraisals valued her jewelry collection at $10 million. McMahon said this showed the insurance company was comfortable with the amount of jewelry, believed she had owned it, and accepted the estimated value.

“They could have said, ‘Show it to me before we put $10 million on the line,’” McMahon said. “The audacity of AIG … that they can contest today that there was no jewelry … and now they want to say, ‘We accepted it then, but now that we got to pay $10 million, we don’t accept it.’”

Montag disputed that contention. “Defense would have you believe that we were complicit in a crime,” she said. “It doesn’t make sense that we’re helping AIG to deny a claim, especially since they paid her so much money in the past. They denied it because of fraud.”

Montag said the Risoldis were continually asking for repayment on items for which they already had collected. And in her insurance claims, prosecutors allege, Risoldi and her family forged appraisal documents — which included numerous misspellings of the word jewelry — in her attempt to swindle insurers.

Montag said Risoldi had made insurance claims in 1984, 1994, and 2002, claiming that thieves took “everything” from her jewelry collection, including heirlooms and old jewelry. The goal, Montag said, was to fund an increasingly luxurious lifestyle.

“Heirlooms are only old one time,” Montag said. “And if it’s all gone in 1994 and in 2002, then it can’t be gone in 2013.”

Chester County Senior Judge Thomas Gavin is presiding over the case because of the Risoldi family’s ties to the Bucks County GOP. The jury is expected to begin deliberating Tuesday.