He’s one of the most notorious characters in New York — if not American — crime lore. But a new Manhattan judge says he’s never heard of killer real estate scion Robert Durst.
“Honestly I’ve heard the name. I have no idea what it means,” Judge John Kelley said during a hearing about a payment dispute involving the multimillionaire, who is currently jailed in Los Angeles on murder charges. The 75-year-old has been the subject of thousands of news articles and the award-winning HBO documentary “The Jinx.”
In the 2015 mini-series, Durst appears to admit being a serial killer when he’s caught on a hot microphone muttering, “What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course.”
Durst, the black-sheep heir to one of the city’s most prominent real estate companies, The Durst Organization, is suspected of killing his friend Susan Berman to prevent her from talking to prosecutors about his involvement in the 1982 disappearance of his wife Kathie.
A private investigation firm, T&M Resources, is suing Durst for allegedly stiffing them on a $130,000 bill after hiring the company to probe his March 2015 arrest over Berman’s 2000 death. Four years later, Durst was acquitted of murder in Texas after testifying that he shot his Galveston neighbor Morris Black in self-defense and then chopped up the body and dumped it in the sea.
In Kelley’s Manhattan Supreme courtroom Tuesday, T&M’s lawyer Vincent Amicizia said, “I think you know who the defendant is, he’s a famous guy.”
That’s when the judge admitted, “Honestly I’ve heard the name. I have no idea what it means.”
Kelley claimed the defendant’s backstory was not necessary for him to rule on “the merits” of the case.
“The defendant has been charged with—“ Amicizia continued, before being cut off by the judge.
“You’re going into it,” the judge warned, stopping him from proceeding.
T&M is trying to win the case on a technicality, arguing that Durst never personally signed off on an answer responding to the allegations. He’s behind bars in Los Angeles, where he’s being tried for Berman’s murder.
Kelley — a former criminal defense attorney and assistant attorney general — was appointed to Manhattan Supreme Court just last month after being elected to a city civil court position in 2013.
Shortly after the appointment, he was assigned to the case. T&M’s court papers note that Durst is “well known to the news media and the public” and provide a link to a New York Times biography of the scion.
The judge reserved judgment on the payment dispute, noting, “There are some issues I want to take a look at.”
