Ex-Mets' Charlie Samuels pleads guilty

Former Mets clubhouse manager Charlie Samuels, charged last year with stealing $2.3 million worth of memorabilia from the team, pleaded guilty Tuesday to reduced charges of possessing stolen property and tax fraud in exchange for no jail time.

Samuels is expected to receive five years' probation at his sentencing in April.

As part of the plea agreement, which was obtained by Newsday, Samuels agreed to pay tax restitution fees of $20,843 to New York State and $14,738.35 to New York City, $15,000 in forfeiture to the Queens district attorney's office and $24,955 in restitution to the Mets.

Samuels, 55, also has been banned indefinitely from attending Mets' games at Citi Field or at their spring-training complex in Port St. Lucie, Fla., or Brooklyn Cyclones games at Municipal Credit Union Park.

Even if Samuels enters a Mets home game with a ticket, "he will be subject to arrest" for trespassing, according to the agreement that was signed Tuesday by Samuels, his attorney Michael Bachner and Assistant District Attorney Christine Maloney.

Samuels declined to comment after the hearing at Queens Supreme Court.

"Mr. Samuels is satisfied to put this matter behind him," Bachner said. "He was always adamant that the charges for which he was indicted were false and the plea he took more accurately reflects the conduct he engaged in."

Bachner said the ban from Citi Field was "standard operating procedure" in a case of an employee being charged with possessing stolen goods from an employer. "The ban is in existence so long as the Mets want it to be," he said. "If Mets ownership changes, the trespass can change."

Standing before acting Supreme Court Justice Barry Kron on Tuesday, Samuels acknowledged under oath that he possessed stolen baseball memorabilia that belonged to the Mets, such as bats, baseballs, jerseys and other equipment, "with the intent to benefit himself," according to the plea agreement.

Kron said Samuels was allowed to keep some baseballs used during a game in Japan, a jersey Garth Brooks gave him in 2000 and some bats that were given to him by non-Mets players. Those items were returned to him from the memorabilia confiscated by investigators when he was arrested, according to the agreement.

Samuels, of Arverne, Queens, worked for the Mets for nearly 25 years before he was fired in November 2010 following an internal investigation by the team. His dismissal came just a few weeks after his name had emerged publicly in a sports gambling investigation by the New York Police Department.

He was arrested last May on charges of stealing $2.3 million worth of Mets memorabilia, embezzling nearly $25,000 in inflated expense reports and failing to report more than $200,000 in income. He had faced as much as 25 years in jail if convicted of all charges.