OK, that’s not really what former NY Times’ columnist Murray Chass has to say to baseball historian/collector and former half of 3rd Bass, Peter Nash, but there is considerable irony in the former’s tarring the latter as a mere blogger who “has no and needs no accountability…free to write whatever he wants and the object of his viciousness has no recourse”, especially given Murray’s impossible to avoid boner for Mike Piazza.
The biggest mystery about Nash’s operation is how he has eluded criminal charges. Obviously, no one who might have had reason or grounds to file a complaint has chosen to do so. The Brooklyn, N.Y., district attorney didn’t even initiate charges against Nash’s father after a 2008 audit found that he had helped himself to $52,551 from a development fund at Brooklyn’s Bishop Ford Central Catholic High School
Ray Nash, who had been president of the school since 2001, resigned in June 2012, ending a 48-year association with the school. The D.A. said his investigation found no evidence of criminal intent, as if secretly taking someone else’s money without permission doesn’t represent criminal intent.
What was the elder Nash’s intent in taking the money? He took it to give to his son so he could avoid foreclosure on his Cooperstown, N.Y., home.
People have gone to jail for taking less than $50,000 that didn’t belong to them. It’s called theft or embezzlement, but Ray Nash very likely escaped prosecution because of his prominence in the community. Had the father been prosecuted, it was likely that the son also would have been as the recipient of the appropriated money.
“When they got caught taking money unauthorized, Nash took memorabilia and got a loan against the memorabilia,” Robert Lifson, owner of Robert Edward Auctions related. “He sold or pawned this memorabilia, and the school took the proceeds of the memorabilia.”
However, Lifson said, the memorabilia belonged not to Nash but to him, and Lifson sued the school for the money. “We settled,” he said. “They gave me all the money, $53,000.”
I don’t want to beat a dead horse however the part that the kings county D.A.’s office played in this case is crucial. In fact I will call Charles Hynes an in-indicted co-conspirator. Never in the world of corporate theft has what the kings county D.A.’s office done. The office of Charles Hynes issued a press release saying there was no criminal intent what Ray Nash did. He either took the money without permission. Made easier by having him as the sole signature on school checks before the scandal hit and a more secure system was put in place to prevent rogue actions by one individual from ever happening again. It makes one think. Was 52k the first time he ever did this ? It wasn’t his ties to the community that kept him out of jail. Charles Hynes should have recused himself given the fact that he has property in Breezy Point as does one or two school board members. That is one of a few scenarios that I will publicly talk about. We may never know what deals were made but a deal none the less was made. The only one or ones who know are Hynes & Co. More people should’ve gone to jail.