Katharine H Parker, the magistrate judge handling Luigi Mangione‘s pre-trial hearings, is married to Bret Parker, a former executive at Pfizer, a biopharmaceutical company, according to a Daily Beast report. She also has financial ties to Pfizer, as she holds stock in the firm.
Mangione is accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, 50. He entered a not guilty plea in a New York court on Monday.
Judge Parker’s stock holdings
Judge Parker holds between $50,000 and $100,000 in Pfizer stock, as reported by the Daily Beast. This information was initially disclosed by independent journalist Ken Klippenstein on the social media platform X.
The Daily Beast report further says that Judge Parker also owns stock in other healthcare companies, such as Abbott Laboratories, Viatris, and CRISPR Therapeutics. Additionally, she has investments in major tech companies, including Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, Tesla, and Apple.
Bret Parker, Judge Parker’s husband, left Pfizer in 2010, where he served as vice president and assistant general counsel. Before joining Pfizer, he held the same titles at Wyeth, a pharmaceutical company later acquired by Pfizer. According to Judge Parker’s disclosures, Bret continues to receive a pension from Pfizer through a senior executive retirement plan (SERP), as reported by Klippenstein
She is not expected to handle Mangione’s trial, according to the Daily Beast report.
Murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO
Mangione is accused of attacking and killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, 50, as he was on his way to a Manhattan conference. Authorities believe the attack was driven by frustrations with the insurance company. When Mangione was arrested in Pennsylvania, police discovered multiple fake IDs, a US passport, and writings about the insurance industry, including a manifesto that praised filmmaker Michael Moore’s critique of healthcare.
His alleged manifesto reads: “United is the [indecipherable] largest company in the US by market cap, behind only Apple, Google, Walmart. The reality is, these [indecipherable] have simply gotten too powerful, and they continue to abuse our country for immense profit because the American public has [allowed] them to get away with it.”