Dan Sandler, who made headlines when he shouted anti-Semitic things in Times Square while in full Elmo garb, was sentenced to a year in prison for a $2 million extortion attempt from the Girl Scouts.
Sandler, 49, said that he would accept his punishment, but stressed that the extortion attempt was a “protest.”
“This was not a case of some one in the back room or front office trying to embezzle. This was more of a protest, like lying in an intersection,” Sander said in a Manhattan court, reported the New York Daily News.
According to The Associated Press, Sandler pleaded guilty last month to attempted grand larceny and misdemeanor stalking as part of a deal with prosecutors.
“I am not in any way sorry to the Girl Scouts organization because I believe they are a very corrupt organization because of their relationship to the pharmaceutical industry,” Sandler said.
Sandler was accused of threatening to publicize false information about the Girl Scouts unless he got paid.
Last year, he was arrested in Times Square wearing an Elmo costume and caused a scene that blocked traffic.
He was arrested last May in San Francisco where he was living in a car. He was later brought to New York on the Girl Scouts charges.
