Dan Sandler, the homeless man who launched an anti-semetic rant last year in the middle of Time Square while dressed as beloved children's character "Elmo" from "Sesame Street" has plead not guilty to extortion charges against the Girls Scouts.
The 49-year-old was arraigned on several charges including attempted grand larceny. The judge has ordered him held on $200,000 bail. The charges came after Sandler began leaving harassing e-mails and voicemails for a Girl Scouts supervisor that he met while working a temp job at the nonprofit.
When he was asked to stop, Sandler began threatening to spread false rumors about sex abuse within the organization unless he was given a large amount of money to keep quiet. AP reports he tried to get a high paying job or to have the Girl Scouts make him a millionaire.
"I want a telecommute job from home of life at 150K," prosecutors say he wrote in one of several rambling emails. "Or a two million dollar cash settlement. As you know, the newspapers like to cover my evil Elmo scenario.
"How you treat me as a person will go a long way in regards to how I treat the Girl Scouts in the press, on the Internet and on u-tube," authorities said. Attached to another email was a photo of an Elmo costume stuffed in the trunk of a car, titled "Interstate Kidnapping of Elmo."
Sandler is known for dressing up as Elmo and hanging out near places where many others wear costumes to make a quick buck posing for pictures with children. However, he often uses the Elmo costume to go on anti-semetic rants in public.
He eventually left New York and took his Evil Elmo act to San Francisco. Authorities said he was living in a car when he was arrested on a warrant in the New York extortion case on May 9.
