| Ruthann Aron | |
|---|---|
| Born | October 24, 1942 Brooklyn, New York |
| Occupation | Former politician |
Ruthann Greenzweig Aron (October 24, 1942, in Brooklyn, New York) is a former politician and real estate developer who ran unsuccessfully for the 1994 Republican U.S. Senate nomination from Maryland. A member of the Montgomery County Planning Board, she lost the nomination to former Tennessee Senator Bill Brock, who was in turn defeated by incumbent Paul Sarbanes. After Brock lost to Sarbanes, Aron sued Brock for slander based on comments he made about her during the primary campaign. Brock had said, at a September 1994 press conference, "She has been convicted by jury of fraud, more than once."
Juries ruled against Aron in two civil lawsuits in which former business partners accused her of fraud or other offenses. A federal judge overturned one of the verdicts, and Aron settled both suits out of court after agreeing to pay about $175,000 in each case. Aron cited Brock's use of the term "convicted" for verdicts that had come in civil court. A lawyer named Arthur Kahn testified against Aron at the February 1996 trial, which Aron lost. It was the first time that a losing federal candidate was able to get the winner into court over words spoken in a campaign.
Aron was arrested in June 1997 for trying to hire a hitman (an undercover police officer) to murder both her husband and Kahn.[1] She was ousted from the Planning Board in August 1997. At the time of her arrest, she was planning to run, as a Democrat, for an at-large seat on the Montgomery County Council. In her first trial, she used nine psychiatrists/psychologists to argue that a brain injury and her childhood abuse had rendered her incapable of realizing that what she was doing was illegal. One juror held out on her behalf, and a mistrial was declared.[2]
In July 1998, Aron pleaded no contest, and in November 1998 she was sentenced to two consecutive 18-month prison sentences. She was released in 2001 and moved to New York to be closer to her son, Joshua. On September 11, 2001, Joshua lost his life in the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. Aron still lives in New York City.
In 2004, Aron's case was profiled on the Oxygen Network series Snapped, which profiles female criminals, and also on the truTV series Dominick Dunne's Power, Privilege, and Justice. In 2006, her case was profiled in an episode of City Confidential.