Miss America Wins Again

To federal prosecutors, Bess Myerson was the embodiment of the woman who loved too much: a New York City official who bribed respected state Supreme Court Justice Hortense Gabel to cut her boyfriend's alimony payments by giving Gabel's troubled daughter a job at the cultural affairs commission. To the daughter, Sukhreet Gabel, Myerson was a manipulative opportunist who banished her when the scam broke in the newspapers. To ex-wife Nancy Capasso, Myerson was a harridan who stole her husband Andy, moved into her house and wore her clothes. But to a federal jury charged with deciding her fate, Myerson was still Miss America, however tarnished.

The conspiracy and bribery trial that ended last week in Manhattan seemed a case of three people risking too much for too little. Why would a respected jurist like Gabel, 76, jeopardize her 16 years on the bench for a job for her daughter? Why would Myerson -- a successful and well-to-do former Miss America, a former candidate for the U.S. Senate -- care whether Nancy Capasso < got $1,500 a week or $500? And what was $1,000 a week more or less to Andy Capasso, 43, a sewer contractor with multiple homes and cars, city contracts worth $150 million and a net worth of some $12 million?

Obsession was the theme of the trial. Just as Hortense Gabel searched relentlessly for a job for her only daughter, the still attractive Myerson, 64, was obsessed with the fleshy Capasso, who is serving three years in federal prison for income tax evasion. Born in 1945 -- the year Myerson was crowned Miss America -- Capasso came along during Myerson's losing Senate bid in 1980, helped her pay off campaign debts, bought her a Mercedes and a fur coat, and gave her the run of his Long Island mansion. All was seeming paradise until Nancy Capasso found out about Bess two years after the affair started, kicked Capasso out of their $6 million Fifth Avenue duplex, and asked for alimony.

The 15-week trial ultimately came down to Sukhreet Gabel. She had taped telephone conversations and stolen her mother's files and she seemed to relish testifying that her job and the judge's ruling in Capasso's divorce were no coincidence. Yet the obviously unstable Sukhreet came across like an indulged child desperate for attention. Judge John Keenan twice instructed the jurors on "reasonable doubt," and after four days they returned with a verdict: not guilty. Myerson brushed away tears and kissed Gabel. Then she walked past the cameras, smiling.