Legal Research

Archivist Stole Papers to Pay Bills

By David Badertscher, PLL

"? A state archivist was charged Monday with stealing hundreds of artifacts ? documents representing "the heritage of all Americans," according to the history buff who found some of them on eBay ? to pay his household bills."

"Daniel Lorello, 54, is accused of taking the rare items from the New York State Library, including Davy Crockett Almanacs, Currier and Ives lithographs and the 1865 railroad timetable for Abraham Lincoln's funeral train. Authorities believe he hawked them for tens of thousands of dollars, using much of that to pay off his daughter's credit card debt."

" 'This crime is especially repugnant, because it's dealing with historic documents,' state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said. 'It's literally stealing the legacy of the state of New York page by page.' "

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Submitted by Theodore Pollack, Senior Law Librarian, New York County Public Access Law Library.

Full post as published by New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library on February 05, 2008 (boomark / email).