Man tried 2 extort Dr Seuss's widow over bizarre sex paintin

Man tried to extort Dr Seuss's widow over bizarre sex painting


LOS ANGELES (AFP) - A man tried to extort the widow of legendary US children's author known as "Dr Seuss" by threatening to circulate a painting of his famous characters engaged in sexual acts, police documents showed.

In a bizarre case, Charles Augustus Steen, 33, was sentenced to three years probation and ordered to undergo anger management classes after pleading guilty to attempting to extort 2.5 million dollars from Theodor Geisel's widow, according to court records.

Geisel, known to millions of children under his pen name of Dr Seuss, created some of the world's best-known children's characters, including scheming "The Cat in the Hat" and the Christmas-spoiling "Grinch."

But Steen, who lives in Portland in the northwestern state of Oregon, sullied the image of the clean-cut cast of characters, who spoke in witty rhyming verses, by threatening to expose their adult side.

He demanded cash from Audrey Geisel, who lives in San Diego, California, in return for not making public a painting he did depicting the Seuss characters engaged in "sexual behavior," documents from San Diego police showed.

Steen also sent a photograph of the lewd painting to Geisel's lawyers, according to police declaration in support of a search warrant.

In a series of threatening e-mails sent last July and August to 83-year-old Audrey Geisel and her lawyers, he also demanded cash compensation for a Dr Seuss story he claimed was plagiarised from his own work.

According to the police document, Steen claimed a story he wrote, entitled "The pain of being true at heart," was plagiarised in the Dr. Seuss book "Daisy-Head Mayzie," published after Geisel's 1991 death.

Steen threatened to write a book that would be titled "The tragical history of Audrey Geisel, or How the Grinch Plagiarized My Goddam Children's Story" if he did not receive a 2.5 million dollar payment, the document said.

In July 2003, Steen sent e-mails depicting Audrey Geisel in sexual situations, according to the declaration.

Steen was arrested at his Portland apartment late last year after a private investigator was hired to track him down.

He pleaded guilty in San Diego in March to making a written threat for extortion.

A month later, San Diego Judge Frederick Maguire suspended a 180-day jail term provided Steen complied with the terms of probation for three years, according court records uncovered on Thursday.