The State - News from May 4, 1988

Lee Sawaya, the man called “puppy eyes,” pleaded innocent to three counts of felony grand theft in the bilking of his recent bride and two of her friends. Marin County Superior Court Judge Peter Allen Smith set trial for July 25. At his preliminary hearing, the 50-year-old defendant’s wife, Beth Rosener, testified that she knew Sawaya as a wealthy businessman named Frank Rossi. She claimed he swindled her out of $14,000. Sawaya was arrested in a fancy restaurant three days after he and Rosener were married. He is wanted in several states for allegedly charming thousands of dollars from women.