By Patrick Hedlund
DNAinfo News Editor
LOWER EAST SIDE — The antiques dealer accused of selling stolen subway signs out of his East Houston Street shop will likely have his wares returned if the city decides to dismiss the case against him, his lawyer said Monday.
Billy Leroy, proprietor of Billy’s Antiques and Props at the corner of Elizabeth Street, made his first court appearance last week on charges he sold dozens of illegally obtained subway signs out of his popular Lower East Side flea market.
The case has been adjourned until late September without an appearance necessary, a strong indication it will be dropped altogether and Leroy will ultimately get his goods back, said attorney Ron Kuby, the noted civil rights lawyer.
“Billy did not steal the signs, nor did her purchase stolen signs, so it will be dismissed because Billy didn’t do anything wrong,” said Kuby, who recently made headlines for challenging the detention of attempted Times Square bomber Faisal Shazhad.
He added that the extended length of Leroy's adjournment — three months — “signifies that the case will be dismissed.” If it is dropped, Kuby said the police will be forced to return the confiscated signs.
“Like good boys and girls, they need to put everything back where they found it when they’re finished playing with their toys,” he said.
Kuby earlier cited the MTA’s ailing surveillance network as a reason for the charges to be dropped, because non-functioning cameras would not have been able to capture the supposed thefts.
Transit police arrested Leroy and seized 96 signs from his shop in a March sweep, charging him with criminal possession of stolen property as part of an ongoing investigation.
The criminal complaint states that 19 “official” subway signs reported missing in 2009 were recovered from Leroy’s shop at the time of the sweep, according to the Manhattan District Attorney’s office.
Many of the signs had sat in plain view in front of his Houston Street tent for years, and Leroy claimed he purchased them from a subcontractor with the MTA who was hired by the transit agency to remove and dispose of old signs.
“Even if I was the most guilty-looking person in the world, there’s no way to prove it 100 percent,” said Leroy, noting that investigators are eyeing a handful of his signs that they believe were stolen from the 86th Street station on the Upper East Side.
However, there are no identifying characteristics on the signs that definitively link them to that station, and Leroy claims he bought them from the contractor well before the alleged thefts took place.
Beyond that, he believes anyone who would go to the lengths required to steal the signs — which involves removing them from ceiling mounts — would demand much more than Leroy is willing to pay.
“It’s just ridiculous,” he said. “They have no case.”
The MTA declined to comment because the case in ongoing, a spokesperson said.
