Eric
09-04-2006, 10:49 AM
Michael O'Keeffe, investigative reporter for the New York Daily news included yesterday this follow up to a memorabilia related story he has been covering in his weekly column "The Score"...
More memorabilia mayhem
The scandal-stained sports collectibles industry received another black eye when Tony Cocchi, a broker who supplied high-end memorabilia to Mastro Auctions, Lelands and other prominent auction houses and dealers, was indicted on a theft-by-deception charge last month by a Cobb County, Ga., grand jury.
Prosecutors referred the case to the grand jury after Goodman Espy, a prominent Atlanta-area obstetrician with an extensive sports memorabilia collection, complained that Cocchi sold him a bogus Ty Cobb jersey.
"I think it's fully justified," Espy tells The Score. "He knew exactly what he was doing when he sold me that jersey." Espy purchased the jersey from Cocchi in 1991 for $85,000, and he planned to sell it last year and donate the proceeds to the Salvation Army's Hurricane Katrina fund. Espy needed a certificate from an established authentication service before he could consign the jersey to Mastro Auctions, the Illinois sports collectibles house. But Memorabilia Evaluation and Research Services rejected the jersey as a fake.
No arraignment or trial date has been set yet. Cocchi could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
Charles Lane, Cocchi's attorney, did not return calls for comment.
More memorabilia mayhem
The scandal-stained sports collectibles industry received another black eye when Tony Cocchi, a broker who supplied high-end memorabilia to Mastro Auctions, Lelands and other prominent auction houses and dealers, was indicted on a theft-by-deception charge last month by a Cobb County, Ga., grand jury.
Prosecutors referred the case to the grand jury after Goodman Espy, a prominent Atlanta-area obstetrician with an extensive sports memorabilia collection, complained that Cocchi sold him a bogus Ty Cobb jersey.
"I think it's fully justified," Espy tells The Score. "He knew exactly what he was doing when he sold me that jersey." Espy purchased the jersey from Cocchi in 1991 for $85,000, and he planned to sell it last year and donate the proceeds to the Salvation Army's Hurricane Katrina fund. Espy needed a certificate from an established authentication service before he could consign the jersey to Mastro Auctions, the Illinois sports collectibles house. But Memorabilia Evaluation and Research Services rejected the jersey as a fake.
No arraignment or trial date has been set yet. Cocchi could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
Charles Lane, Cocchi's attorney, did not return calls for comment.