Queens ‘Duck Sauce Killer’ widow says husband’s suicide note proves her innocence on gun charges

The defense lawyer representing the widow of the “Duck Sauce Killer” battled with prosecutors Tuesday over a suicide note sent to the district attorney by her ex-husband in which he declared her innocence on weapons charges.

Mark Bederow argued that the lengthy missive sent to Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz and two of her staff needs to be seen by a grand jury considering the case against Dorothy Hirsch, while a Queens prosecutor insisted the note clearing the defendant was hearsay.

Bederow, speaking after the hearing where he cited a “mountain of evidence” pointing to his client’s innocence, said he remained sure of an acquittal if his client is tried for possession of the weapons found in her home.

“I have no doubt at all, every bit of supreme confidence, that if there is an indictment and trial on this case that Dorothy will be quickly acquitted,” he said. “There is no evidence to link Mrs. Hirsch to these guns. [Her husband] gives great detail in saying the firearms are his.”

She faces the gun charge in connection with her husband’s alleged murder of a Chinese restaurant deliveryman, a killing, authorities said was sparked by a long-running dispute over duck sauce.

Bederow noted his client, rather than abetting Glenn Hirsch, was actually a complaining witness in five domestic incidents involving her husband. He added that a search of Glenn Hirsch’s apartment conducted by his investigators after Hirsch’s suicide turned up another gun, along with ammunition, apart from the weapon he used to shoot himself.

Hirsch’s family members turned out in support of the defendant, who was charged after authorities found her husband’s guns inside her apartment. Her relatives described a hardworking woman who served in both the Army and the National Guard.

“My sister has done nothing wrong, never been arrested,” said her sibling Tony Melendez. “Because of her late husband, she’s in this position.”

But Assistant District Attorney Thomas Salmon insisted Glenn Hirsch’s exculpatory statements about his wife remained inadmissible.

“It’s an anonymous email,” he argued. “We have no way to authenticate [the note] ... allegedly written by Glenn Hirsch.”

The issue remained unresolved after the hearing before Judge Frances Wang.

“I’m not going to be the one to make the determination,” she said. “If you want to bring it to the grand jury judge, you should certainly do that.”

Hirsch, 62, was charged with hiding her spouse’s weapons cache in a closet in her Queens apartment. Hirsch, in the rambling letter written before his Aug. 5 suicide, insisted investigators in the case were “planting and contaminating evidence at my wife’s apartment in order to incriminate me.”

The bizarre missive also cited Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky and journalist H.L. Mencken and flatly stated Hirsch took “full responsibility for the eight guns recovered from a closet in her apartment.”

He also asserted his innocence in the April 30 slaying of Chinese restaurant delivery man Zhiwen Yan, 45, the last volley in a long-running dispute between Hirsch and the eatery. Authorities said the lethal confrontation began months earlier when Hirsch complained there was not enough duck sauce with his takeout order.

Hirsch, who was living apart from his wife, offered a spirited defense of his spouse in the letter.

“Mrs. Hirsch is a woman of impeccable character,” he wrote. “She is a caring and kind person who has dedicated her life to the service of others. Mrs. Hirsch would never knowingly break the law ... I urge you to dismiss all the charges against Dorothy Hirsch.”