Was the Confession coerced?

Should we give weight to the defense attorney's claim?

The woman accused of killing Linda S. Stein, the punk rock manager turned Fifth Avenue real estate broker, was coerced into confessing and should be released on bail, her lawyer told a judge on Wednesday at a hearing that ended with an angry confrontation between the families of the defendant and the victim.

The lawyer, Ronald L. Kuby, told Justice Micki A. Scherer that his client, Natavia S. Lowery, 26, of Brooklyn, who was Ms. Stein’s personal assistant, had given written and videotaped statements to the police and prosecutors that had all the earmarks of a false confession.

He said that the police and assistant district attorneys who took the statements knew that Ms. Lowery’s stepfather had hired a lawyer to represent her but had not informed that lawyer that she was being questioned. Ms. Lowery is now being represented by Mr. Kuby.

Maybe this is just the defense crying fowl in order to stir the pot.