DENVER—Disgraced Democratic fundraiser Norman Hsu was “sick and confused” and may have thought he was boarding a Bay Area Rapid Transit train when he instead caught an Amtrak train that took him out of California, where he had a court date, a spokesman said Tuesday.
Hsu was arrested in Grand Junction, Colo., Sept. 6 after he failed to show up for a court appearance in California for a 1991 grand theft case that resulted in a conviction.
His spokesman Jason Booth was in Colorado on Tuesday on the eve of a court hearing at which Hsu was expected to waive extradition, officially ending his 15-year run from California authorities. Booth said Hsu intended to appear for his court date in California but may have mistakenly boarded a train out of state.
“That’s what appears to be how it happened,” Booth said. “He was disoriented at the time … We believe he suffered a psychological, mental, or physical breakdown. How that was caused I don’t know. I’m not a doctor.”
California Attorney General’s Office spokesman Gareth Lacy declined to comment on Booth’s statement late Tuesday.
Hsu boarded an Amtrak train in the Bay Area in California about an hour and a half after arriving there by charter plane Sept. 5 and had a ticket for Denver when he apparently fell ill in western Colorado and had to be hospitalized.
“He’s getting better,” his spokesman Robert Emmers said.
Tapes of Grand Junction police radio traffic indicate that an officer recognized Hsu’s name as “Hillary Clinton’s money-launderer” being talked about on television news reports.
Hsu was a leading money “bundler” for Clinton, earning the title of HillRaiser for his efforts. Her campaign is returning $850,000 in contributions linked to Hsu.
Hsu remained in custody Tuesday on $5 million bail, Booth said.
If he waives extradition Wednesday as expected, California officials have 10 days to pick him up, Mesa County sheriff’s spokeswoman Heather Benjamin said, adding Hsu was in administrative segregation because of his high profile status.
At his scheduled California court hearing, Hsu had been expected to turn over his passport and ask a judge to cut in half the $2 million bail he posted last month when he turned himself in after spending 15 years on the lam from the theft conviction.
Instead, Hsu missed the bail reduction hearing, and a judge issued a new arrest warrant for him.
“Based on my communications with him is that he had all intentions of being in court and now he wants to go in and deal with this,” Booth said.
Mesa County District Attorney Pete Hautzinger wanted Hsu’s bail in Colorado set at $50 million, telling the judge he had been informed that Hsu was “probably involved” in a scheme involving $33 million and about 50 investors in Orange County, Calif. He gave no details.
Hautzinger also cited an investigation in New York into whether Hsu was involved in the alleged misappropriation of millions of dollars from an investment fund.
The judge declined Hautzinger’s request and instead set Hsu’s bail at $5 million, which is five times the previous high for Mesa County.
