ALLEGED CON ARTIST ARRESTED FOR STEALING $140,OOO FROM OUEENS RETIREE

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown announced today the arrest of a Manhattan man on charges of stealing $140,000 from a 73 year old Queens retiree by convincing him that he had hired and paid for a lawyer to bring a lawsuit against the New York State Department of Correctional Services on behalf of the retiree's incarcerated son.

District Attorney Brown identified the defendant as Richard Shandell, 34, of the Hampshire Hotel and Suites which is located at 157 West 47th Street, New York, NY. He is charged with Grand Larceny in the Second Degree and faces up to 15 years in prison, if convicted.

According to the charges, over the past 15 months, between April 1997 and July 1998 the defendant, a friend of the victim's son, met repeatedly with the victim, a retired car salesman, telling him that he had hired a lawyer to bring a civil rights lawsuit on behalf of the victim's incarcerated son. The defendant allegedly told the victim that the lawsuit sought money damages from the New York State Department of Correctional Services for alleged mistreatment the son had received in May, 1997. He was then serving a sentence of from 2 to 6 years on a Manhattan drug sale conviction.

It is alleged that in July of 1998, the defendant told the victim that a settlement agreement had been reached in the lawsuit for $493,000 but that in order to claim the money, the victim had to pay an additional $18,000 in legal fees in order to receive the settlement money. Throughout the scheme, the defendant allegedly told the victim that he had already advanced money to the lawyers and that the monies given to him by the victim were merely reimbursement.

The defendant was arrested yesterday in his hotel room by Detectives Richard A. Scantlebury and Juan Rodriguez under the supervision of Lt.. Al Velardi of the District Attorney's Detective Bureau which is under the command of Chief Edward Brady. The defendant was arraigned in Criminal Court this morning and is being held in lieu of $30,000 bail.

Assistant District Attorney Robert Ciesla of the District Attorney's Integrity Bureau which is under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Vincent J. Carroll and the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney Robert Alexander, is in charge of this case.

It should be noted that an arrest is merely an accusation and that a person is innocent until proven guilty.