The Dunwoody widow of a slain businessman asked a Fulton County judge on Friday to dismiss a wrongful death lawsuit filed against her by her late husband’s brother.
Andrea Sneiderman’s husband Rusty Sneiderman was shot and killed in November 2010 by her boss at the time, Hemy Neuman. He was convicted of murder in March.
Now, the courts are dealing with two wrongful death lawsuits arising from the killing: One filed by Andrea Sneiderman against Neuman, and another filed by Steve Sneiderman against Andrea.
Friday, during a hearing on the widow’s motion to dismiss her brother-in-law’s suit, the man’s attorney argued that his client’s lawsuit, not the widow’s, should stand.
“This wrongful death case does not belong to her,” Esther Panitch told Fulton County Superior Court Judge Doris Downs. “She is alleged to be [Neuman’s] co-conspirator. How can she sue Hemy Neuman … if she is aligned with him?”
Downs did not make a decision Friday, saying she would inform the attorneys when she did so later. It was unclear when that would happen.
The Neuman case gained national attention when, during Andrea Sneiderman’s testimony in the man’s trial in March, both prosecutors and his defense attorney accused the widow of orchestrating a murder plot against her husband.
Steve Sneiderman soon filed a wrongful death suit against the woman.
Andrea Sneiderman countersued, claiming Steve Sneiderman, the executor of his brother’s will, did not act in her children’s best interest when he released a statement to the media in June stating, “Andrea’s covered in Rusty’s blood, and there are not enough rabbis in the world to wash away those stains.”
DeKalb County prosecutors in August indicted Andrea Sneiderman in connection with her husband’s death. And Steve Sneiderman on Friday, from the witness stand, repeated another comment he had previously made suggesting that Andrea’s parents were also somehow embroiled the conspiracy to kill Rusty.
“I have reason to believe they may have known something,” he said.
Andrea Sneiderman’s attorneys said that Steve Sneiderman’s actions called into question whether he was the appropriate person to be managing Rusty Sneiderman’s financial affairs and watching over the Sneiderman children.
“How is that looking out for the best interest of your niece and nephew?” Lewis Levinson asked Steve Sneiderman.
Esther Panitch, Steve Sneiderman’s attorney, pointed out that her client had been named the executor of his brother’s will and of Andrea Sneiderman’s will, less than a year before the killing.
“Clearly, they trusted him them,” Panitch said.
Levinson questioned whether Steve Sneiderman was responsible for cutting off Rusty’s Social Security payments to his widow when she was arrested last month.
“I don’t know who did that,” Steve Sneiderman said. “If I did, I would say so.”
But Levinson said despite his connection to Rusty Sneiderman’s family, Steve Sneiderman was out of line to file a wrongful death lawsuit.
“She is the person to bring the wrongful death suit against Hemy Neuman,” Levinson said of his client.
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