Amy Fisher Trial: 1992

With Judge Goodman repeatedly refusing to lower Fisher's huge bail, her attorney went to Hollywood to obtain bail money. Naiburg constructed a deal in which a film production agency secured the rights to Fisher's story by guaranteeing the major portion of her bail. The contract was signed and Fisher was released.

When prosecutors learned that Hollywood had helped finance Fisher's bail bond, they were furious. Since 1977, New York's so-called "Son of Sam" law, named after serial killer David Berkowitz, had barred criminals and defendants under indictment from selling their stories for profit. Six months before Fisher's case, however, the law had been declared an unconstitutional infringement of First Amendment rights to free speech. The state was hurriedly modifying the voided law in a way that would comply with the U.S. Supreme Court's decision, while still making convicts liable to financial claims by their victims. The prosecution charged the defense with improperly funding Fisher's release. However, Fisher remained free, Although under a restraining order to stay away from the Buttafuocos. This was not enough for an angry Mary Jo Buttafuoco, who filed a civil suit against Fisher for over $100 million, including the Hollywood bail money.

Meanwhile, the Buttafuocos were also selling interviews and cutting deals with Hollywood. Partially paralyzed and suffering from impaired vision and hearing, Mary Jo Buttafuoco sold the rights to her side of the story to CBS television for several hundred thousand dollars.

On September 23, 1992, Amy Fisher agreed to plead guilty to the lesser charge of reckless assault rather than face the uncertain outcome of a trial for attempted murder. Mary Jo Buttafuoco was livid over the plea bargaining, which required Fisher to aid investigators still examining the incident. This was a clear indication that Joey Buttafuoco was vulnerable to a statutory rape charge if it could be proved that he had had sex with Fisher when she was 16 years old.

"She tried to kill me and now she's taking my husband and trying to destroy us," said Mary Jo Buttafuoco. "This girl is an attempted murderer, a liar, a prostitute, and the D.A. is accepting her statement that she and Joe were together. Something's wrong here."

Free on bail while awaiting sentencing, Fisher visited a boyfriend, Paul Makely. While she rattled on about marrying Makely so that she could have conjugal visits in prison and about a sports car she hoped her notoriety could buy her, Makely secretly videotaped the conversation. He sold the tape to Hard Copy, a national tabloid television show, and Fisher made headlines again. When she saw the tape, she attempted suicide and checked into a psychiatric hospital. After she was released, she voluntarily returned to prison to avoid the media.

By now, police investigators had collected a handful of motel receipts signed by Joey Buttafuoco on dates when Fisher claimed to have met with him. F.B.I. handwriting analysts confirmed that most of the receipts carried Buttafuoco's signature. Yet facing a lack of any other evidence and with Fisher's reputation making her a useless witness, the District Attorney announced that Buttafuoco would not be indicted. At her sentencing on December 1, 1992, Fisher listened as Mary Jo Buttafuoco told the court of the lifelong pain she would endure as a result of her gunshot wound and the permanent disruption of her life and those of her loved ones.