Suspect Pleads Not Guilty In Stradivarius Heist

The instrument, stolen from Minneapolis violinist Frank Almond, has been recovered and is under police guard. One of the suspects in the heist has entered his plea, but we’re all curious about how his accomplice got that name:

A Milwaukee man accused in last month’s theft of a $5 million violin has pleaded not guilty.

Online court records say Salah Salahadyn entered the plea Monday after waiving his preliminary hearing.

The 41-year-old is charged with being a party to robbery. The charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $50,000 fine. Public defender Alejandro Lockwood declined to comment afterward.

Salahadyn and 36-year-old Universal K. Allah are both charged in the theft. A 300-year-old Stradivarius was stolen from a Milwaukee concertmaster in a stun-gun attack Jan. 27 but police recovered the instrument in good condition nine days later.

Salahadyn served five years for a previous conviction for art theft. Prosecutors say he’d been plotting for a while to steal a Stradivarius.

Now, Universal K-12 I can support. Universal K. Allah, on the other hand…

By: dave-dr-gonzo

David Hirsch, a.k.a. Dave "Doctor" Gonzo*, is a renegade record producer, video producer, writer, reformed corporate shill, and still-registered lobbyist for non-one-percenter performing artists and musicians. He lives in a heavily fortified compound in one of Manhattan's less trendy neighborhoods.

* Hirsch is the third person to use the pseudonym, a not-so-veiled tribute to journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson, with the permission of his predecessors Gene Gaudette of American Politics Journal (currently webmaster and chief bottlewasher at Liberaland) and Stephen Meese at Smashmouth Politics.