A former Elmo impersonator with a long history of bad behavior was indicted this week for allegedly trying to extort millions from the Girl Scouts and stalking and harassing one of their employees.
According to Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Dan Sandler allegedly threatened to spread lies about sexual abuse within the organization, if he was not compensated $2 million or given a lifetime income from the Girl Scouts.
He allegedly told people at the organization he would claim they set up sexual meetings between adult men and underage girls at a scout camp, and falsely claimed that they allowed him to interact with the scouts even though they knew that he had operated a pornographic website while living in Cambodia over 10 years ago.
Court documents state that Sandler, 49, worked with the Girl Scouts as a temporary employee. He is accused of sending harassing emails and voicemail messages to his former Girl Scouts supervisor, and ignoring her requests for him to stop.
Sandler is apparently no stranger to unlawful activity: when he was being transported from San Francisco to New York for arraignment, he allegedly told an officer of his previous blackmail successes.
“I did the same thing to Pfizer as the Girl Scouts, but they never made a complaint about it, they gave me a lot of money,” he allegedly said.
Politicker reported that Sandler pleaded not guilty to all of the charges brought against him.
His lawyer, Lawrence Gerzog, tried to get his client released on the basis of insanity.
“This case is a case involving, obviously, mental health issues,” Gerzog told the Daily News.
Sandler is being held on $200,000 bail and will return to court on June 13.
