Excerpt
Defense attorney Jules Ritholz argued that the illicit drugs found in the lab were part of a legitimate research project, to be used in behavior modification experiments on lemurs. Somewhat contradictorily, he also tried to build a case that the prosecutions star witness, B-Js colleague Clifford Jolly, had been jealous of B-Js success and had conspired with lab assistant Richard Macris to plant the drugs to bring down B-J and perhaps even usurp his job as department chair.
Ritholz also argued that there was no discernible, reasonable motive. B-J was one of the best-paid professors at NYU and had inherited a large sum of money when his wife, Vina, died. In his opening statement, Ritholz said: “What is there in this that would leave probably the most prominent physical anthropologist in the world to risk reputation, career, prison, the loss of everything he has worked for by performing a criminal act? Why in the world?”
Why in the world, indeed.