He is the first person acknowledged to be done in by his date after she "googled him" in 2004 and discovered that he was a fugitive from the law. The FBI arrested him at Appleby's: http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/0 ... own28.html
http://news.cincinnati.com/article/2013 ... ck_check=1
Empire theater thief returning to face prison
Lashawn Pettus-Brown could return to prison after defrauding the city of Cincinnati.
Dec. 18, 2013 | 4 Comments
LaShawn Pettus-Brown in 2005 after he was charged with defrauding the City of Cincinnati in the Empire Theater scam./The Enquirer
Written by
Kimball Perry
Lashawn Pettus-Brown is headed back to town.
Pettus-Brown, who scammed city of Cincinnati officials into giving him $184,000 to renovate the Empire Theater a decade ago, was wanted even after he served a prison term because he still owes the city for the stolen money.
“He vanished still owing the city $184,000,” Assistant Hamilton County Prosecutor Andy Berghausen said Tuesday.
Pettus-Brown, now 37, was recently arrested in California after he returned from Japan where he lived after his conviction in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court in 2005.
His connection to the Empire Theater project has been an embarrassment for the city. First, Pettus-Brown showed up in 2002 saying he played professional basketball in Japan and with a forged letter from a bank that indicated he owned the Over-the-Rhine theater and needed financial backing. He used that and other scams to convince the city to give him $184,000 to renovate the crumbling theater.
When he gave the city his financial paperwork, he listed his worth at “1.6 million.” But had city officials carefully read the documents, they would have seen that Pettus-Brown listed that number not as dollars but as as yen, the Japanese equivalent at the time of about $14,000.
Instead of spending the money on the theater, Pettus-Brown spent it on shoes, expensive dinners and promoting a rap concert. No work was done on the theater and it was torn down in 2003.
Pettus-Brown was convicted after a federal court trial but U.S. District Judge Sandra Beckwith threw out the conviction.
He also was convicted of theft and other charges in Hamilton County and sentenced to four years in prison. Unknown to Judge Ethna Cooper, Pettus-Brown was allowed to enter a special prison program that allowed him to be released after five months.
As part of Cooper’s sentence, Pettus-Brown also was placed on probation and ordered to repay the city $184,000. Before he could pay any money, he went to Japan, a violation of his probation.
“No one had heard from him since,” Berghausen said.
Until last week when Hamilton County officials were notified that Pettus-Brown was arrested in California after returning from Japan. Now, he could be going back to prison unless he repays the stolen money.
“He vanished still owing the city $184,000,” Berghausen said. “He’s certainly somebody who owes the city money that he wrongfully stole from it.”
