Football Veteran, 2 Others Win $400,000 From Brokers

Former New York Giants receiver Phil McConkey and two friends have won more than $400,000 from an arbitration panel’s finding that Wall Street brokerage Dean Witter Reynolds mishandled their stock orders.

The charges stemmed from the three men having purchased stock in a company called Special Devices.

McConkey, who caught a touchdown pass in the Giants’ 1987 Super Bowl victory, said he purchased 7,000 shares in the company in 1992, after a Dean Witter broker recommended it in glowing terms.

The broker, Worth Bagley, later lied to McConkey and refused to follow his order to sell the stock when its price fell, according to a National Assn. of Securities Dealers summary of the case.

Dean Witter argued that McConkey had accepted an earlier settlement of $4,900 and that he failed to make his complaints known to a branch manager.

McConkey’s friends, Bruce Manchel, a San Diego podiatrist, and John Steel, an insurance adviser, lodged similar complaints. Dean Witter denied any improprieties.

An arbitration panel of the securities dealers group ruled that Dean Witter, Bagley and a Dean Witter manager in La Jolla, Robert Inbody, had to pay McConkey $113,000 and attorneys’ fees and void the sale of the stock. Manchel received $83,000, and Steel was awarded $218,000.

The decision, made in July, was made available Tuesday.

There was no answer at the offices of Dean Witter, Discover & Co. The lawyer for Dean Witter, Bagley and Inbody, identified as Kevin Fitzgerald of the Los Angeles firm Jones, Bell, Simpson & Abbott, also could not be reached.