Man Accused of Stealing Oscars Sues LAPD

It was billed as a surprise appearance by one of three missing Oscars stolen a week before the Academy Awards from a shipping facility in Bell.

But when the cameras rolled, the star turned out to be a fake and the attorney cast in a supporting role flubbed his lines.

The newest twist in the stolen-Oscar caper came at a news conference Thursday to announce the filing of a federal civil rights lawsuit by a La Puente man arrested in connection with the theft of 55 Oscars from the Roadway Express shipping facility in Bell.

Anthony Keith Hart, 38, is demanding $20 million in damages, alleging that the Los Angeles Police Department arrested him in the theft without evidence and then sullied his good name by blasting him in front of the national media after he was arrested.

Hart, who says he has lost his job, claims in his suit that Police Chief Bernard C. Parks orchestrated the arrest to improve a departmental image tarnished by the Rampart corruption scandal.

But when Hart’s attorney, Stephen Yagman, tried to add some Hollywood glitz to the press conference to announce the lawsuit, the spotlight turned to an Oscar that Yagman briefly displayed. He hinted that it was one of three statuettes still missing. But he changed his tune when reporters demanded to know how he had gotten his hands on stolen property.

“It’s none of your business,” Yagman told a television reporter. He later admitted that it was not stolen.

“It’s a prop,” a frustrated Yagman finally said. “It’s to show what an Oscar looks like.”

The Oscar mystery began March 8 when a shipment of 55 Oscars destined for the Academy Awards show disappeared from the Roadway Express shipping facility in Bell.

Two Roadway workers, Hart and Lawrence Edward Ledent of West Covina, were arrested March 18 and accused in the theft. Police said the two men planned to sell the Oscars but got nervous and dumped them in an alley.

A few days after the arrest, a Koreatown salvage man, Willie Fulgear, found 52 of the missing Oscars near a dumpster behind a strip mall. Police are still searching for the remaining three statuettes.

Ledent pleaded not guilty to one count of grand theft but prosecutors declined to charge Hart, citing insufficient evidence.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, names Parks; several staff members and investigators; Robert Rehme, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; and Roadway Express. The suit accuses them of defaming Hart and violating his civil rights.

The suit alleges that Parks and his investigators used the arrest to generate glowing headlines for the LAPD for cracking the stolen-Oscar case, which had drawn international media attention.

“Parks wanted to create the false impression, in a high-profile case . . . that he and the tarnished LAPD had saved the Oscars, which neither he nor it did,” according to the suit.

Hart said he had nothing to do with the theft and didn’t even know the Oscars were being shipped through the facility where he worked. Although no charges were filed against him, Hart said, Roadway Express fired him. “I was treated like a criminal,” he said.

Yagman suggested that Hart and Ledent were targeted by the LAPD because both are African American.

“I know of no evidence at all that would indicate to a rational person that Mr. Hart had anything to do with the missing Oscars,” he said.

LAPD Cmdr. David Kalish, a spokesman for Parks, rejected Yagman’s allegations, saying, “We believed there was sufficient probable cause to warrant [Hart’s] arrest.”

He declined to elaborate on the evidence. Kalish also rejected the charges that the department unfairly maligned Hart. “We only provided factual information,” he said.

Sandy Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office, declined to discuss the evidence police submitted against Hart, saying only that it was insufficient. She added that prosecutors could still charge Hart if police submit additional evidence.

Police agencies normally defend themselves against false-arrest lawsuits by claiming they made “good-faith” efforts to arrest the guilty parties.

To win, Yagman must show not only that there was no evidence against Hart, but also that “no reasonable, well-trained officer could have concluded that there was a probable cause,” said Peter Arenella, a law professor at UCLA.