By MARK ROBARGE The Leader-Herald
A Gloversville man who admitted to bilking the caretaker for an ailing Pro
Football Hall of Famer out of $30,000 in January will serve up to a year
in federal prison for that crime.
Shawn M. Stevens, 26, of 66 Montgomery St., was given the one-year sentence Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Greensboro, N.C., along with a $10,000 fine and three years of supervised parole. Stevens had been charged with one count each of interstate transportation of stolen property and issuing counterfeit checks, but pleaded guilty only to interstate transportation of stolen property, for which he could have received a sentence of up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Stevens admitted to giving $30,000 in bogus checks to Donna Pihos-Howell, the ex-wife and caretaker for 80-year-old former Philadelphia Eagles star Pete Pihos, for memorabilia from Pihos' career. Using the pseudonym Dr. James Hart, Stevens purchased several game jerseys, including some worn by Pihos when he appeared in the Pro Bowl, as well as a football signed by 45 members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, authorities said.
Stevens also had Pihos - who suffers from Alzheimer's disease - autograph several hundred photos during a Jan. 31 visit to the couple's home in Winston-Salem, N.C., during which he also collected the memorabilia.
The items Stevens bought from Pihos-Howell with the phony checks have already been returned, and Stevens was also ordered Tuesday to pay an additional $2,500 in restitution as compensation for the autographs Pihos signed.
Pihos-Howell was in the courtroom Tuesday and said she was satisfied with the sentence Stevens received. She said she was especially glad to finally be able to put the situation behind her.
"I'm glad today is finally over," Pihos-Howell said Tuesday night. "I'm really happy things turned out the way they did."
Pihos has been battling Alzheimer's disease for more than four years, and while he has faced some small setbacks recently, Pihos-Howell said Pihos refuses to give up, and even made the trip to Canton, Ohio, in August for the annual induction ceremonies at the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
"Bless his heart, he fights, fights, fights," Pihos-Howell said.
As their story received national media coverage, the couple received an outpouring of support from people involved with football and from the public, including a benefit show in Johnstown sponsored in May by local sports memorabilia show promoter Mike Hauser. He also helped law enforcement identify Stevens as the man who scammed the couple. The money received from that show, along with donations from across the country, has allowed Pihos-Howell to place her ex-husband in an adult day care center while she works as a librarian and to try other treatments to stave off the effects of the ailment.
While Pihos continues to battle against his ailment, Stevens' legal problems are not over, either. He still faces charges in Florida for allegedly scamming another ailing Pro Football Hall of Famer in a fashion similar to Pihos-Howell. The State's Attorney's office in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., has charged Stevens with third-degree grand theft and third-degree uttering a forged instrument, felonies that each carry a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
Officials claim Stevens gave 77-year-old Lou Creekmur of Plantation, Fla. - who also suffers from Alzheimer's disease - a bogus check for $5,000 as payment for the former Detroit Lions star autographing several hundred photos.
Stevens was scheduled to be arraigned on those charges Sept. 3 in Broward County Circuit Court in Fort Lauderdale, but that hearing was rescheduled due to Hurricane Frances and has yet to be rescheduled, officials said.
As a result of the investigation into the Pihos-Howell scam, Stevens and his wife, Juliette, 29, also pleaded guilty in August to one count each of third-degree welfare in Fulton County for not reporting income the couple received from Shawn Stevens' sports memorabilia business while they received more than $13,000 in public assistance.
In that case, Stevens was sentenced to the three weeks he had served in Fulton County Jail while awaiting disposition of his case, while his wife is scheduled to be sentenced in October and is expected to receive five years of probation.