Pubdate: Wed, 27 Oct 1999
Source: Vancouver Sun (Canada)
Copyright: The Vancouver Sun 1999
Contact:  200 Granville Street, Ste.#1, Vancouver BC V6C 3N3
Fax: (604) 605-2323
Website: http://www.vancouversun.com/
Author: Gordon Clark

FLASHBACK: STILL WANTED AFTER 28 YEARS

The most gorgeous feature of Allen Richardson's $700,000 West
Vancouver home is the view.

It stretches from Whytecliff Park to Snug Cove on Bowen
Island.

Now, after 28 years, a New York prosecutor wants him to trade it for a
cell in Attica prison.

In 1971 -- as 19-year-old physics student and Vietnam War protester
Christopher Perlstein -- Richardson was sentenced to four years for
selling seven hits of LSD worth $20 in to an undercover cop in his
dorm room at Rochester Institute of Technology.

Richardson was sent to Attica for six weeks before being transferred
to a work camp. When he learned he was to be returned to Attica, he
fled to Canada, 12 weeks into his four-year sentence.

Richardson travelled in Europe before restarting his life in Vancouver
in 1975.

Since 1980 he has worked as a technologist at TRIUMF, the high-energy
cyclotron facility at the University of B.C., where he helps produce
cancer-fighting particles, although he has been on leave for a year.

His wife is fighting breast cancer. He's a director of the West
Vancouver SPCA.

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

Yesterday, his New York lawyer, Michael Kennedy asked Monroe county
court Judge John Connell in Rochester, N.Y., to reverse Richardson's
sentence on the grounds that it was excessive and doesn't reflect the
kind of man Richardson is now.

The judge reserved his decision.

New York prosector Robert Mastrocolo said Richardson must serve the
the time -- up to three years, eight months and 26 days.

Richardson and his wife would not be interviewed yesterday.

Neighbours said the Americans should leave him alone.

Richardson is seeking refugee status, saying he was persecuted in the
U.S.  for anti-war protests. 

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