[MSN] US. Charges dropped in Picasso sketch case.

[MSN]

Charges dropped in Picasso sketch case
BY BRIGITTE RUTHMAN | REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN

LITCHFIELD — Criminal charges were dropped Monday in Bantam Superior Court against two men who claimed they hid but didn't steal an original Picasso sketch hanging on the wall of an unlocked Water Street art gallery in Torrington.

Darcy St. Onge and Alassandro Calabrese were charged with criminal trespass. They admitted they used Glass Mountain Gallery at 21 Water St. as a party pad over the winter, a place where they drank beer, watched television, ate Chinese food and occasionally slept.

According to police and the arrest warrant affidavits, Darcy St. Onge, 21,of 75 Tollgate Lane in Avon, and Alassandro Calabrese, of uncertain age and address, were in the studio when the Picasso, valued at $25,000, vanished. Police were summoned Jan. 7 by the owner of Glass Mountain Gallery, Teresa Graham-Sullivan, who claimed the Picasso had been stolen after someone broke a kitchen window to gain entry into the studio while she was away for several weeks.

Both men said they knew the value of the sketch and hid it so it wouldn't be stolen.

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