Furloughed for lawyer meeting, alleged art scammer escapes from custody
Luke Brugnara. Photo from the Northern California Regional Intelligence Center.
A California inmate awaiting trial on a mail fraud charge escaped from custody last Thursday during a furlough arranged for a meeting with his lawyer.
The inmate, Luke Brugnara, 51, is accused of agreeing to pay about $11 million for several artworks, then refusing to pay after he accepted delivery. He escaped from custody during the furlough for a trial preparation meeting with lawyer Erik Babcock in the attorney lounge at the San Francisco federal building, report the San Francisco Chronicle and Courthouse News Service.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup approved the furlough, which allowed Brugnara to dress in street clothes and required him to remain at all times “in sight of and within the same room as attorney Babcock” or with a pretrial services official. “Defendant shall also act in a civil manner,” Alsup’s order (PDF) said, “and avoid tantrums and shouting.”
Alsup signed an arrest warrant for Brugnara, who was placed on Northern California’s most wanted list.
Brugnara is accused of ordering art that included 16 paintings by Willem de Kooning and an Edgar Degas sculpture. After the art was crated and shipped from New York to Brugnara’s home in San Francisco, he refused to pay for it or to return it, the FBI alleges. Police later recovered four out of the five crates containing the art work, according to the June 2014 FBI press release.
