Police Fear Scam Artist Has Returned to Los Angeles : Crime: Man typically calls women, pretends to be a loved one, has had a car accident and persuades them to buy off or have sex with a ‘witness’--himself.

The suspect has eluded him for 17 years: A man calls a woman, posing as an attorney for a loved one facing trouble with the law. Then he tricks his victims into giving him money or sex.

It was John Metcalf’s first case when he became a Los Angeles Police Department detective trainee in 1982. And the now-veteran detective continues to track Richard Alan Minsky, whose victims stretch from Southern California to Massachusetts to Florida to Washington.

“I never forgot the guy,” Metcalf said. “Over the years, a couple of times a year, I must have said to myself, ‘I wonder what happened to Richard Alan Minsky.’ ”

Authorities say Minsky, a 55-year-old Brookline, Mass., native and former used car salesman, has preyed on hundreds of women. He has been charged at least 80 times and convicted in more than a dozen trials in five states, serving about 11 years in prison, Metcalf said.

Minsky’s last prison sentence ended in June 1998, after he completed two years at the Massachusetts Correctional Institute. Since then, Minsky has failed to register as a sex offender and faces at least five years in prison for violating his parole.

Within two weeks of his release, Minsky allegedly struck again in Los Angeles. Authorities are seeking him in connection with crimes against 11 women in Southern California. His bail has been set at $1 million, stemming from multiple charges of sexual battery, rape and grand theft.

Minsky is accused of stealing about $50,000 from women in Los Angeles and San Diego over three months last year.

Minsky’s return to Los Angeles drew Metcalf’s attention a year ago, when the detective was reviewing bunco cases assigned to the LAPD’s Financial Crimes Division. Metcalf said he recognized Minsky’s method of operation from victim reports.

“He has such a unique M.O.,” said Metcalf. “This is way beyond your basic street con.”

Minsky uses the same scenario, asks victims many of the same questions and tells them to meet him at many of the same places.

His pattern is to pick names randomly from a phone book, Metcalf said, and call about midmorning.

Victims say that Minsky lowers his voice to a whisper, saying that he is in trouble and to listen to his attorney. Usually the victim calls out a loved one’s name, giving Minsky all the information he needs.

Minsky then changes his voice and identifies himself as an attorney. He tells the woman that her husband or loved one is in trouble for driving into a pedestrian and then fleeing. The alleged hit-and-run crime, Minsky says, has been witnessed by a man who is leaving that night, usually to New York.

The victim is told that the witness might be persuaded not to testify, but it will require her help. The woman is told she may have to flirt with the witness, or give him money. Otherwise, her loved one may be facing two years in prison.

“You have a loved one telling the victim that, ‘If you love me, you’ll listen to the attorney,’ ” said Metcalf.

Before hanging up, Metcalf said, Minsky always asks his victims how they rate their looks, on a scale of 1 to 10. Victims describe Minsky as balding and foul-smelling, a chain smoker who is always looking around nervously, Metcalf said.

If a woman agrees to meet with the “witness,” Minsky gives them a code word, usually the name of a president, Metcalf said. He often chooses the same location, such as the McDonald’s restaurant at 2nd Street and Colorado in Santa Monica, he said.

What makes the scam work is loyalty, Metcalf said. Victims range in age from 23 to 55, he said, and include a UCLA professor, an actress and a commercial property manager. Many others, he said, have probably been too ashamed to report the crimes after discovering they have been duped.

“With this type of a con, you can imagine that there are 100 women who, because of the humiliation of the crime, never report it.”

If it had not been for the encouragement of a friend, Pat Morse said she would have never reported her encounter with Minsky.

In 1980, Morse received a call that she thought was from her younger sister.

“It was really hushed,” said Morse of the voice. “It seemed like a woman’s voice, whispery, crying . . . and said, ‘I’m in a whole lot of trouble.’ ”

Victim Calls Out Sister’s Name

Morse, now 49, called out her sister’s name, and Minsky identified himself as her sister, saying that she had committed a hit-and-run crime, and that there was a witness. Asking Morse not to tell anybody, Minsky changed his voice and pretended to be an attorney. He told Morse the witness might be persuaded to keep quiet, and suggested Morse meet with him.

After failing to reach her sister by phone, Morse agreed to meet with the witness at a hotel in Marina del Rey. She used a code word to identify Minsky, and drove with him to a nearby parking lot.

“I was crying,” said Morse, a paramedic. “I said that nothing can happen to my sister, that I would do anything.”

Morse offered to have sex with Minsky. “He’s like a magician,” Morse recalled. “He knows just what to say to get what he wants out of you.”

The next morning, she reached her sister and discovered she had been tricked.

Morse never told her family but eventually testified against Minsky in court. He was convicted in 1980 on two counts of grand theft after authorities tracked him down from a motel matchbook he had left during an encounter with one of his victims.

Earlier this year, an Orange County resident said she too apparently heard from Minsky.

Linda--not her real name--received a telephone call in February. She heard a whispering voice she thought might be her daughter.

“It was very hard to identify the voice,” said the woman, 58, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “He kept saying, ‘Can you hear me?’ ”

She asked if it was her daughter, and the caller, who did not identify himself, started to tell Linda the same hit-and-run story. But Linda, who was not fooled, asked for a middle name. The caller hung up.

That was a smart question, Metcalf said.

“Ask him something really simple, like, ‘What’s your middle name, what’s your phone number at work?’ ” Metcalf said.

Linda, who considers herself lucky, notified police of the call after hearing about Minsky on a television news program.

Metcalf is hoping acquaintances of Minsky will come forward with information on his whereabouts. “I’m getting a second chance with this guy, to get him in here and keep him from doing this to anyone else,” he said.