Suspect in Conn. kidnapping, arson due in court
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HARTFORD - An advertising executive accused of holding his former wife hostage inside their South Windsor home for hours before burning it down is due in court twice this week as judges decide on appropriate bond.
A hearing is scheduled tomorrow for Richard Shenkman to consider a request by New London State’s Attorney Michael Regan to revoke $600,000 in bonds that Shenkman had posted after previous arrests. Those include an arson charge for a 2007 fire that destroyed a home Shenkman and former wife Nancy Tyler owned in Niantic. Like the home in South Windsor, it was burned to the ground just before Tyler was to take possession of it.
Shenkman also has a hearing scheduled in Hartford Superior Court on Wednesday where he will faces charges including kidnap and arson in the South Windsor standoff and fire. His attorneys could use that hearing to argue for a lower bond on those charges.
Shenkman, 60, was arrested July 8 at his burning South Windsor home, several hours after Tyler was able to escape a hostage ordeal that lasted more than 12 hours. She told police she was able to unscrew her handcuffs from an eye bolt in a basement wall.
Shenkman is accused of kidnapping Tyler from a Hartford street earlier that day. The pair had been due in Family Court for a compliance hearing, and Shenkman was to pay Tyler $100,000 for legal fees or turn over the South Windsor house, attorneys said.
The couple were well known in Connecticut, where they had run a public relations firm, Prime Media Inc. The company handled the media for the OpSail 2000 event in New London and did public relations for the Eastern Pequots as the tribe was seeking federal recognition.
Shenkman is the brother of Mark Shenkman, president of Shenkman Capital Management - one of the nation’s largest money management firms, which oversees more than $5 billion.
