FUGITIVE FROM 1970S LSD CONVICTION HEADS TO NY

A West Vancouver man is returning voluntarily to New York State to face the
music.

Allan Richardson, in his 50s, escaped from prison in the early 1970s
shortly after he started to serve a four-year jail sentence for selling $20
worth of LSD to an undercover police officer.

Richardson, whose real name is Christopher Perlstein, was a student at
Rochester Institute of Technology at the time. In Richardson's
pre-sentencing investigation, he admitted that he sold LSD so often to
students that he could not recall the undercover police transaction.

Richardson fled to Canada. He has lived here quietly for nearly 30 years.

Since 1982, Richardson has worked as a technical engineer at the nuclear
physics research lab called TRIUMF, located at UBC. He stopped work there
in 1998 when he was arrested by Mounties acting on a tip.

Richardson could not work here after his arrest because he did not have a
work permit.

Richardson's Vancouver lawyer Michael Bolton said his client will return to
court in Munroe County in Rochester, New York, on June 28.

Bolton said Richardson will go into custody in a medium security prison in
New York state.

He added that he didn't know when Richardson would be paroled.

In a previous News report, Munroe County District Attorney Howard Relin
said he supported Richardson's serving his sentence in Canada.

But Bolton said that could not happen because Richardson was American. The
Prisoner Transfer Treaty between Canada and the United States applies only
to Canadians. Bolton said lawyers tried to organize a special ad hoc
arrangement for Richardson to serve the sentence in Canada, but there was
"resistance" by Canadian authorities.

Bolton said that Richardson will get a ministerial permit to return to
Canada and work here after he is paroled.

Richardson's wife Amalia has breast cancer.

Richardson had filed a refugee claim after his prison escapee status was
known, but has since abandoned it, according to his lawyer.