STATE
PHILADELPHIA — A housekeeper has pleaded guilty to state court charges in the theft of a Benjamin Franklin bust taken from a home in Philadelphia.
Mobile, Ala., resident Andrea Lawton, 47, already faced up to 20 years in federal prison for pleading guilty in December to interstate transportation of stolen property for allegedly fleeing with the bust to Alabama in August.
Monday’s plea in Montgomery County Common Pleas court dealt with the theft of the bust itself from a home in Lower Merion Township. The owner has claimed the bust, which was broken when authorities recovered it, is worth about $3 million.
