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Judge Seals Case Against Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

This story was updated at 5:50 p.m.

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. – A legal motion filed by the family of the late Mary Richardson Kennedy was sealed by the judge Friday in New York State Supreme Court.

The Richardson family filed the motion, Thomas Richardson v. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Thursday. The case was listed as a "miscellaneous proceeding" and scheduled to be heard at 9:30 a.m. Friday in White Plains by Judge Joan. B. Lefkowitz.

Robert Kennedy, along with two of his and Mary’s teenaged children and members of the Richardson family and their lawyers, spent most of Friday behind closed doors in New York State Supreme Court Judge Joan B. Lefkowitz's 16th-floor courtroom. Robert Kennedy was listed as representing himself.

From 9:30 a.m. to around 3:30 p.m., various members of the two families were called into Lefkowitz's chambers, including the two Kennedy children. 

As she was meeting with the judge at one point in the early afternoon, one of Kennedy's daughters walked out of the judge's chambers alone, holding her hands to her face to hide her tears. She could be heard crying as she walked away.

Throughout the private proceedings, members of the Richardson family who were present were also visibly upset. One tried to hide her tears behind large black sunglasses.

Robert Kennedy was the last to leave the Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard building around 4 p.m.

The court did not state publicly what the proceedings were about and Lefkowitz has sealed the case, according to Joseph Castellano, program coordinator for the legal division of the Westchester County Clerk’s Office, when interviewed Friday afternoon.

Mary Kennedy, 52, was found dead Wednesday afternoon in an outbuilding on the Kennedy property at 326 S. Bedford Road. She died of asphyxiation due to hanging, according to the Westchester County Medical Examiner's Office.

A wake for Mary Kennedy is scheduled for 6 p.m. Friday night at the Kennedy home in Bedford. A funeral is scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday at St. Patrick's Church in Bedford, and burial in Hyannisport, Mass.

The Kennedys' divorce was not final at the time of Mary Kennedy's death, making Robert Kennedy Jr. the legal next of kin.

Multiple messages left for Patricia Hennessy, of the matrimonial law firm Hennessy & Bienstock, and for Kerry Lawrence, the lawyer who has acted as a spokesman for the Richardson family, were not returned.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a son of U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of President John F. Kennedy, both assassinated in the 1960s. Mary Kennedy was his second wife.

Christine Hall contributed to this report.

 

 

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