A FUGITIVE SINCE 1971 IS TRACKED DOWN IN CANADA

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) -- In 1971, a 19-year-old college student by the name
of Christopher Perlstein drew a four-year prison sentence for selling $20
worth of drugs to an undercover policeman.

Fearing an imminent transfer to Attica prison where a deadly prison riot
had just ended, Perlstein walked away from a state work camp in central New
York on Sept. 28, 1971, and escaped to Canada.

Twenty-eight years later, authorities have tracked him down and are seeking
his extradition.

The New York City native, now age 50, has legally changed his name to Allen
Harvie Richardson and works in a research lab in Vancouver. He also has a
wife stricken with advanced breast cancer.

On Tuesday, with Richardson still in Canada, his lawyer argued in a New
York courtroom that his client's sentence for a first-time conviction was
excessive and that he deserves mercy because his life has been exemplary
ever since.

"What can society conceivably gain by our reintroducing Mr. Richardson to
prison?" asked lawyer Michael Kennedy in appealing for Richardson's
sentence to be reduced or eliminated.

Prosecutor Robert Mastrocola countered that Richardson was "attempting to
negotiate from a point of safety" and has no intention of returning to New
York unless he gets his way.

"He doesn't want there to be any consequences," Mastrocola said.

Richardson, meanwhile, is seeking refugee status in Canada, arguing that he
was unfairly treated by U.S. courts and targeted by police because he had
led protests against the Vietnam War while a physics student at Rochester
Institute of Technology. He was caught selling LSD from his college
dormitory room.

He served six weeks in Attica and then six more weeks at Camp Georgetown
near Syracuse, N.Y.. He says he only fled when a camp guard warned him he
was being returned to Attica, where weeks earlier 43 people had been killed
during a four-day uprising. The standoff ended when state police stormed
the prison near Buffalo on Sept. 13, 1971.

If returned to Attica, "he thought ... he would probably be brutalized and
killed," his lawyer said.

After his escape, Richardson lived in Europe and then settled in Vancouver
in 1975. He has worked in a cancer research lab since 1980 and heads a
chapter of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Apparently alerted by an informant, New York state police located him early
last year. As a fugitive, he had kept in contact only with his father, who
died last year, his lawyer said.

"For almost 30 years, I have struggled to lead a good and just life,"
Richardson said in an affidavit.

"I have endured the loss of personal history, family, country, education
and have, without bitterness, rebuilt my life to a position of integrity
and trust in the community. I strive to be, and believe I am, a good husband.

"I can only wonder how much suffering is required to be placed in the
balance before my ancient debt, born of youthful folly and passion, is
considered paid."

Monroe County Judge John Connell said he needed time to decide whether to
order Richardson's extradition. A ruling could come later this week.