Mets Ex-Clubhouse Manager Samuels Gets Five Years Probation
Written by Adrian Gregory Glover // April 18, 2012 // MLB, News // No comments
Charles Samuels, the former longtime clubhouse manager for the New York Mets, has been sentenced for criminally possessing almost $2.3 million worth of on-field and game-used Mets memorabilia and collectibles.
These items include autographed jerseys, bats and baseballs that belong to the Mets organization. He also answered to charges of for evading city and state taxes.
Samuels, 55, of Arverne, Queens, began his career with the New York Mets in 1976, was made equipment manager in 1983 and subsequently became the clubhouse manager and traveling secretary.
He was terminated by the Mets organization in November 2010.
He was formally sentenced to five years’ probation by Queens Supreme Court Justice Fernando M. Camacho. He pleaded guilty last February to second-degree criminal possession of stolen property and third- and fourth-degree criminal tax fraud in satisfaction of the charges against him.
As part of his guilty plea, Samuels agreed to pay restitution of $20,843 to the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance, $14,738.35 to the New York City Department of Finance, $24,955 to Sterling Mets, L.P. (which does business as the New York Mets) and to pay $15,000 in forfeiture to the Queens County District Attorney’s Office.
Additionally, Samuels is banned from Citi Field in Queens, the New York Mets’ minor league park in Brooklyn, and their spring training facility in Port St.Lucie, Florida.
According to the guilty plea, Samuels knowingly possessed hundreds of autographed and unsigned New York Mets jerseys, baseballs, bats, helmets and other equipment between Sept. 1, 2007, and Nov. 13, 2007, that had been stolen from Sterling Mets, L.P., and which had an appraised value of $2,282,265.
The Mets property was recovered in November 2010 from the basement of a Madison, Conn., house belonging to a friend of Samuels.
In pleading guilty, Samuels stated under oath that he did not possess any other property belonging to Sterling Mets, L.P.
Samuels also pleaded guilty to under reporting the true amount of his income on his 2009 New York State tax returns in order to avoid a tax liability for the year.
The indictment specifically charged that Samuels under reported the true amount of the dues and gratuities that he had received from ball players and others.
