Wife of ‘Duck Sauce Killer’ shaken as she appears in court on gun charges
The wife of “Duck Sauce Killer” Glenn Hirsch appeared shaken up in Queens court Thursday as she pleaded not guilty to charges she stashed an arsenal of guns inside her home.
Dorothy Hirsch, 62, clutched her head and said “I can’t do this,” before entering the plea on an 18-count indictment charging her with a slew of illegal weapons possessions crimes, for which she could face up to 15 years in prison, if convicted.
Her defense attorney later explained that Dorothy was “upset and scared” — adding that she “emphatically” professed her innocence to the judge during the hearing.
Investigators searched Dorothy’s Briarwood apartment in June as part of the probe into her estranged husband over the fatal shooting of a Chinese-food delivery man in Forest Hills.
Glenn Hirsch, 51, stood accused of gunning down Zhiwen Yan on April 30 — apparently over a vendetta against the Great Wall restaurant for shorting him on duck sauce — when he killed himself last month.
Police allegedly recovered a cache of illegal guns from Dorothy’s home, including a .357 magnum revolver, a .25 caliber semi-automatic pistol, a .38 caliber revolver, a .380 caliber semi-automatic pistol, a .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol and three 9mm semi-automatic pistols.
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![Dorothy Hirsch, lawyer Mark Bederow in courtroom.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/09/duck-sauce-widow-arraingment-3-1.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=878)
![Dorothy Hirsch](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/09/duck-sauce-widow-arraingment-4-1.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=473)
![Dorothy Hirsch](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/09/duck-sauce-widow-arraingment-6.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=413)
Lawyer Mark Bederow told The Post that his client had no clue her allegedly murderous hubby — who she accused of beating and raping her — had stashed the weapons inside her apartment closet.
The case “is comically overcharged,” Bederow said after Thursday’s hearing, adding that the charge of intent to use the firearms was particularly “absurd.”
He noted that Glenn, an apparent hoarder, had kept the weapons, “in garbage bags and boxes wrapped in tin foil and plastic – tantamount to a Russian doll – in a closet that was exclusively filled with his items.”
Bederow has claimed in court papers that the battered wife wouldn’t have known about the weapons or questioned her husband about what was in the bags.
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![Glenn Hirsch](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/09/duck-sauce-widow-arraingment-10-1.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=442)
![Zhiwen Yan](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/09/duck-sauce-widow-arraingment-11.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=320)
He accused the Queens District Attorney’s Office of treating his client “in a heavy-handed fashion simply because she was married to somebody that they believe is the so-called ‘Duck Sauce Killer.'”
Bederow claimed prosecutors are refusing to turn over evidence of Glenn’s alleged abuse of Dorothy which is “clearly relevant” to her case. The DA’s Office is “ignoring so much evidence which points away from her because somebody has to be held responsible for what he may or may not have done,” he claimed.
“She is a 62-year-old woman who has never been in trouble in her life and she is being described as this terrible person and it’s extraordinarily upsetting,” Bederow said of his client.
![Gun in a plastic bag.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/09/duck-sauce-widow-arraingment-9-1.jpg?w=1024)
Still, “she is very strong and is confident that she is going to be acquitted swiftly,” he added.
The lawyer explained that as soon as the grand jury transcripts are turned over to him he will be filing a motion to dismiss the indictment against Dorothy.
In a suicide note Glenn sent to the judge assigned to his case — and which Bederow filed in Dorothy’s case — the accused killer repeatedly claimed the guns in his wife’s apartment did not belong to her and that she should not face charges over them.
“I want to take full responsibility for the eight guns recovered from a closet in her apartment. I acquired these firearms years ago …” Glenn wrote, adding that he moved the guns into Dorothy’s place after he closed a storage facility where he previously stashed them.