Police To Share Sale Of Con Man's Car

BELLEVUE - Fully loaded, 1992 teal-blue Corvette with CD player. Low, low miles, driven only to scams on Sunday. Make offer, call Bellevue police.

Ruth Darden, whose job is legal adviser to Bellevue police, has temporarily become a car dealer, trying to sell a Corvette seized months ago when officers arrested con man Malefai Moliga.

Darden hopes to give whatever profit is left, after paying a real dealership the $26,000 it is owed on a car loan, to Moliga's victims. "We're not making a penny," Darden said.

Moliga recently was sentenced to more than seven years in prison after pleading guilty to numerous counts of theft. Many victims of Moliga's pigeon-drop scam were elderly, including one Bellevue man who gave Moliga and an accomplice $45,000.

Brian O'Neill's Sports Cars International has given Darden a week to try to sell the car.

Darden's been told the car is worth up to $31,000, which at most would leave $5,000 to repay victims who lost more than $100,000.

Interested parties should call 455-7826.