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Archivist says he stole to pay the bills
BY BOB CONNER Gazette Reporter

    A state archivist and Civil War expert stole hundreds of historic documents and artifacts belonging to the New York State Library and sold some of them over the Internet, authorities said Monday.
    Daniel D. Lorello, 54, of Van Leuven Drive, Rensselaer, was arraigned Monday in Albany City Court on felony charges of third-degree grand larceny, fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property and first-degree scheme to defraud. He was released without bail and ordered to reappear Feb. 11.
    According to Lorello’s hand-written Jan. 24 statement submitted to the court by the state Attorney General’s Office, he stole the items in part to pay $10,000 in credit card bills run up by his daughter. He said he began stealing in about 2002.
    “I took things on an as needed basis to pay family bills, such as house renovations, car bills, tuition and my daughter’s credit card problem,” the statement said. Lorello’s statement said he took 300 to 400 items just in 2007.
    The thefts were discovered after the state Library was contacted by someone in Virginia who was suspicious about an item offered for sale on eBay — an 1823 letter from the South Carolina politician John Calhoun. That letter was the property of the state Library, as were other items allegedly offered for sale by Lorello on eBay, the online auction site, including a Currier & Ives lithograph.
    The Associated Press reported the crime was discovered by Joseph Romito, a Virginia attorney and avid history buff. Romito tipped off authorities after he saw one of the items for sale, a fourpage letter from former Vice President John Calhoun written in 1823, listed on eBay.
    “I wanted to identify the recipient of the letter,” said Romito, who researched the document and discovered it belonged to the state library.
    “These kinds of items … represent the heritage of all Americans,” Romito told The AP. “I am gratified that I had some small part to play in it.”
    Lorello also admitted stealing from the Library two copies of the Davey Crockett Almanac, containing material produced by the legendary frontiersman, politician and soldier, which he sold for $3,200 and $2,000 apiece to a collector in Colorado. He also admitted stealing a Poor Richard’s Almanac, published by Benjamin Franklin, which he sold for $1,001, and a visiting card portrait of Civil War general Winfield Scott Hancock, which he sold for either $2,000 or $2,400.
    The Hancock portrait, according to Lorello’s statement, was sold to Mike West, “an attorney in Schoharie. I sold this item in the summer of 2007. The transaction took place in the bus lot next to the museum. He gave me cash.”
    Lorello worked on the 11th floor of the Cultural Education Center, the same building where the State Museum is located.
    Schoharie County Attorney Michael West declined to comment on whether he is the person named by Lorello. “I’m not saying one way or the other,” he said. “… I’ve been asked not to talk.”
    West’s name was crossed out in the papers released by the attorney general’s office, and he was not charged with anything. John Milgrim, spokesman for Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, said that given the ongoing investigation it was to release West’s name to the media. However, he confirmed that the name Mike West does appear on the statement by Lorello that was submitted to the court, and that was seen by the Gazette.
    The Associated Press reported that Lorello faces up to 25 years in prison, but Milgrim said that was an exaggeration based on the charges currently filed. Those charges carry maximum sentences of 2 1 /3 to seven years for the grand larceny, and 1 1 /3 to four years for the stolen property and fraud, he said.
    Lorello was suspended without pay from his $72,000-per-year job as an archives and records management specialist. He has worked at state archives since 1979. He oversaw the movement of records during renovation of the archives, an Education Department spokesman, Jonathan Burman, confirmed.
    While Lorello worked at the archives, the alleged thefts were from the library’s Manuscripts and Special Collections. Both the library and archives collections are on the windowless top floor of the Cultural Education Center, at the south end of Empire State Plaza. Lorello worked on that floor and had access to both collections, said Christine Ward, assistant commissioner for the state archives.
    According to Lorello’s statement, “I estimate that the attorney general’s office recovered approximately 90 percent of everything I’ve ever taken.” The items were recovered from his home.
    A press release from the Attorney General’s Office said hundreds of documents have been recovered and will be returned to the Library, and that it is working with eBay to recover other stolen items.
    Ward said archives and library staff have tightened security in response to the alleged thefts, but declined to go into detail about that or to say much about Lorello. “He is well known, well respected as an historian of the Civil War,” she said.
    Lorello was scheduled to give a March 9 public lecture at the Cultural Education Center about Civil War material in the state archives. He also is listed as compiler of a book published in 1999 by Fordham University Press, “The Union Preserved: A Guide to the Civil War Records in the New York State Archives.”
    However, despite his expertise, his statement misspells the name of Winfield Scott Hancock.
    In Albany City Court, a public defender entered an innocent plea on behalf of Lorello, but officials said he is expected to engage a private attorney. Court personnel had not been informed about any attorney hired by Lorello as of Monday afternoon. Lorello did not return phone calls to his home.
    The library and archives are run by the state Education Department.
    Ward said the Library and Archives exist to make documents available to researchers and the public, which is what Lorello did.

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EBay to buy back stolen history
Artifacts to be returned to state
BY MICHAEL GORMLEY The Associated Press

    Documents penned during the Civil War and others to and from Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt are among hundreds of stolen documents sold online that eBay is agreeing to buy back and return to New York’s archives, a state official said Saturday.
    The online auction giant has no liability in the sale of the stolen artifacts on eBay, but the company has voluntarily agreed to buy them back at the sale prices and return the documents to New York, according to the official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because not all details of the investigation have been announced.
    In January, state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s investigation found about 200 documents were stolen and sold in the last two years. But checking through the buyer and seller comments in those sales revealed another 200 documents had been sold since 2001, according to the official.
    The total cost of rebuying the documents for which eBay has sales records is estimated at $68,000. The offer by eBay means the state won’t have to spend money to buy the records.
    The official said the buyers appear not to have known the documents were stolen and so wouldn’t face criminal charges.
    “We believe that when people realize they bought stolen artifacts they will step forward and do the right thing,” the state official said.
    Cuomo and eBay will contact the buyers, the state official said.
    An eBay spokesman didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment made by telephone, email and pager.
    In January, Cuomo charged Daniel Lorello, 54, an archives and records management specialist in the New York Department of Education, with stealing items including Currier and Ives lithographs and the 1865 railroad timetable for Abraham Lincoln’s funeral train.
    Lorello, who lives in Rensselaer, pleaded not guilty to charges of grand larceny, criminal possession of stolen property and scheme to defraud and was released awaiting trial. He faces up to 25 years in prison.
    If he is convicted, a court could order restitution.
    Hundreds more historical documents may have been sold at trade shows, where Cuomo’s investiga- tors said New York documents were sometimes swapped for other historic documents.
    Among the items stolen from New York were Davy Crockett Almanacs — popular 19th century pamphlets about the frontier hero’s exploits — sold for more than $5,000; artifacts associated with the Revolutionary, Civil and Mexican wars, World War I, black Americana and items related to the Roosevelts and Jewish Americans.
    The sale was noticed by a history buff, Virginia attorney Joseph Romito, who discovered that a fourpage letter sold on eBay for $1,800 that was written by former Vice President John Calhoun belonged to the New York State Library and Archives. Romito then alerted authorities.

This photo provided by the state Attorney General’s Office shows a signed 1823 letter from former Vice President John Calhoun. Longtime state archivist Daniel Lorello was accused Jan. 28 of stealing this letter and hundreds of other historic artifacts and documents from the New York State Library and selling some on eBay.