Convicted Art Thief’s Lawyer Still Behind Bars

The Van Gogh art thief who went on the lam this week was still at large--and talking--Friday. But his attorney was behind bars.

Defense counsel Douglas Young was escorted from a downtown Criminal Court Building holding cell Friday afternoon to make a courtroom appearance on behalf of fugitive art thief Ronald Stanley Gerson. Young had been jailed hours earlier for failing to show up in a Norwalk courtroom in an unrelated case.

Meanwhile, Gerson, who vanished from the courthouse Wednesday afternoon, just before the verdict in his case was to be read, called The Times from an undisclosed location, his second such call in two days, saying he would not turn himself in.

“The whole trial was a sham,” he added.

The fugitive expressed sympathy for Young, saying he hoped Jailbusters, the Van Nuys bail bond firm that had posted Gerson’s $50,000 bail, would help out his attorney.

‘Eating Jail Food’

“Mr. Young is in jail, unfortunately; (maybe) he should have come with me,” he laughed. “He’d be better off because right now, he’s eating jail food.”

Gerson, who has previous convictions for armed robbery and grand theft, was found guilty by the jury Thursday of stealing a Vincent Van Gogh painting from a Holmby Hills mansion in 1984.

Earlier Friday, Young, giggling and carrying a pamphlet, “How to Apply for a Pardon,” was temporarily released from the lockup to appear before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Richard C. Hubbell for the jury’s final deliberations in the Gerson matter.

After the session, Young was led back to a cell, where he is to remain until Monday. The 36-year-old lawyer was being held on $25,000 bail for having failed to show up in Norwalk Superior Court Friday morning as a subpoenaed witness in a vehicular manslaughter case.

Dec. 13 Sentencing

Hubbell set a Dec. 13 sentencing date for both Gerson, who faces up to 14 years in prison, and Young, who, in addition to his problems in Norwalk, faces an indeterminate jail sentence in Hubbell’s court for contempt.

The judge issued the contempt citation because Young, disobeying a court order, had disappeared from the courtroom Thursday afternoon, shortly before the jury was to announce its final rulings in the Gerson case.

“We came in today wondering, ‘What’s next?’ ” winced jury foreman John Groller, 72, after the panel was dismissed Friday afternoon. “(This case) certainly had its share of incredulity.”

Before Young’s jailing, though, most of the case’s bizarre aspects had focused instead on the delinquent defendant.

Called for Verdict

Gerson, 38, shocked court officials Thursday when he called the court to find out the jury’s verdict. He proceeded to talk with both Young and with the prosecutor, Deputy Dist. Atty. William A. Crisci, convincingly telling them he had no intention of surrendering.

Gerson reiterated the pledge to the media in phone calls late Thursday, asserting that he had fled because Crisci and court officials subjected him to verbal abuse and informed him of the guilty verdict while it was still sealed.

Such allegations, however, were dismissed as “total bull” by Crisci.

“I knew nothing of the verdict until the time it was read by the clerk,” he said Friday. “I knew nothing, nobody knew anything about it.”

Groller agreed, saying, “Gracious no, absolutely. We realized the confidentiality required.”

Deliberated 2 Days

Young himself acknowledged that his client apparently fled because he surmised the verdict of the 12-member jury, which had deliberated for less than two days.

“I know I couldn’t have gotten all 12 of them,” Young said. “I was hoping to get one or two of them confused.”

Gerson, in his phone call to The Times on Friday, said he intended to spend the weekend watching football--”I’m a Raiders fan”--and pondering whether to sue the victim of the art theft.

“It’s not a 14-year crime,” Gerson said. “This man had a $500,000 painting before it was taken. Now it’s worth $3-million because of the notoriety. Where’s my $2.5-million? And they want to throw me to the wolves for 14 years. Where’s my cut?”

‘Bridge Over the Seine’

Gerson was found guilty of taking the painting “Bridge Over the Seine,” worth an estimated $300,000 to $800,000, from the home of developer Ernest Herman. The Canoga Park resident, testimony showed, posed as a gas company employee in July, 1984, to gain access to Herman’s home.

A month later, Gerson was one of five men arrested in the Century Plaza Hotel when authorities, posing as drug dealers, pulled a sting operation. The painting was to be sold for $125,000 in cash and 20 kilos of cocaine, worth an estimated $6 million if sold on the street, authorities said.