SANTA CRUZ, Calif- Both the attorney and the insurance agent for art collectors Benjamin Amadio and Dr. Ralph Kennaugh were present at Friday afternoon's news conference.
Attorney, Vicki St. John was able to provide photos of some of the 30 pieces of art that she says was stolen from Amadio and Dr. Kennaugh on September 25.
The itemized list of stolen paintings provided to the media by the attorney only lists 19 out of the 30 that were allegedly stolen. The list was compiled of photos of some of the art work and information from wikipidia but shows no proof of ownership.
Click here to see the media list
According to St. John they have provided the sheriffs department with a full list of the stolen art as well as proof of ownership. As of 4 p.m. Friday the sheriffs department say that they have not received any of this information.
She says the reason it took about two weeks to get this information to the sheriffs department was because the information was also stolen in the heist and the back up was on a zip drive in Boston.
According to the insurance broker, David St. John, they still are not sure how many of the stolen paintings are insured.
Emails that were released at the news conference tell of many concerns that the victims have with the sheriffs department. Among them a late night phone call to the home of Amadio and Dr.Dr. Kennaugh.
"Your office called my clients at home after 10 p.m. to ask some clarification questions. It seems unreasonable to call Mr. Amadio or Mr. Kennaugh at such a late hour. I find it difficult to comprehend what is so urgent that it couldn't wait until 9 a.m. the next day", said Attorney Vicki St. John in an e-mail to "Sheriff Richards".
They are also concerned with the fact that when detectives arrived at the scene they started asking Amadio and Dr. Kennaugh about clients of Vicki St. John instead of asking about the stolen art.
"We would like to know why the first question detectives asked our clients during the investigation had to do with Mr.(name redacted)'s daughter. I understand that Mr. (name redacted) is volunteer helicopter pilot at the Sheriff's office. Ms.(name redacted) is one of my clients and has no relationship to this mater. Further more, Mr. Amadio is a certified law student doing clerking for my office, and this line of questioning about one of my clients is entirely inappropriate," said Vicki St. John in an e-mail.
On Tuesday Commander Mike Richards with the Monterey County Sheriffs department held a news conference to announce that the alleged victims, Angelo Benjamin Amadio and Dr. Ralph Kennaugh, were now suspects.
According to the sheriffs department the victims have provided little cooperation with the investigation and have failed to offer up any identifying information on the stolen art work.
See the Sheriffs News Conference
