DA freezes bank accounts of library theft defendants
Prosecution’s move spurs legal challenge
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The owner of an Oakland bookstore who is charged in a 20-year conspiracy to sell rare books stolen from the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh is challenging the prosecution’s freezing of his business bank accounts.
Attorneys for John Schulman, 54, of Squirrel Hill, on Wednesday filed a motion in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court to vacate an order signed last week that froze two of his PNC bank accounts while the case against him proceeds.
Mr. Schulman, along with former archivist Gregory Priore, who managed the library’s Oliver Room, is charged with theft, receiving stolen property, conspiracy and related counts.
They are scheduled for a preliminary hearing on Aug. 1.
The Allegheny County district attorney’s office sought and obtained an order freezing Mr. Schulman’s two PNC business accounts for Caliban Book Shop
because the money in them may be needed to satisfy any restitution in the case if there is a conviction.
The prosecution alleges that the value of some 300 items stolen from the late 1990s through 2016 is approximately $8 million.
During the investigation, detectives said in an affidavit of probable cause, they have recovered about $1 million worth of stolen items, including 42 of them found in the Caliban Book Shop Warehouse in Wilkinsburg during a nineday search there last summer.
In Mr. Schulman’s motion, his attorneys suggest that the defense will need access to the accounts because they expect the criminal case will be “very complex.”
“It is anticipated that discovery will be voluminous, requiring the review of thousands of documents and the hiring of several experts and investigators for the purposes of preparing for trial and to be used at trial.”
Mr. Schulman’s attorneys noted that the bookstore is the family’s sole source of income and is used to support his wife and two sons.
In addition, it has a staff of seven that are paid approximately $11,000 biweekly out of those business accounts, as well as covering the cost of rent, utilities and his staff’s health insurance, the motion said.
The DA’s office froze one account of Mr. Priore’s. His attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment about whether he will file a challenge.
A hearing on the issue of the frozen bank accounts is scheduled for Monday before Common Pleas President Judge Jeffrey A. Manning.