Yoko Ono Blackmailed By Drivers Extortion Attempt

For 10 years, he was Yoko Ono's trusted chauffeur, a former Turkish military man working for the widow of an assassinated rock star for the past 10 years has snapped.

His life seemed to consist of taking care of a stable of cars, including Ono's Bentley, occasionally collecting tickets for minor traffic infractions, like driving without a seat belt.

Then, the police said, last Friday, the anniversary of John Lennon's death, he apparently snapped, turning on Yoko his boss.

In a conversation with Ono at her apartment, the chauffeur, Koral Karsan, threatened to release private information about Ono and her family unless she paid him $2 million, according to prosecutors. Four days later, on Tuesday, Karsan visited Ono's lawyer, Jonas Herbsman, in his Manhattan office, where he threatened to kill Ono, her son, Sean Lennon, and himself.

At Karsan's arraignment Thursday in Manhattan Criminal Court, a prosecutor said Karsan boasted that he had people "on standby" ready to kill Ono and that he was planning to move to Turkey and peddle a book about her private life over the Internet if she did not yield to his demand for $2 million.

The prosecutor, Maureen O'Connor, read in court a passage of the letter she said Karsan had used to try to blackmail Ono.

"I will not only write about these recordings, but will distribute them to European broadcasting stations," O'Connor quoted from the letter. "Be advised I am moving back to Turkey permanently and will publish my book in Turkey and will distribute the prints throughout the Internet from Iran where I have already secured e-commerce capability."

As Karsan, who is charged with attempted grand larceny through extortion, was being arrested Wednesday, he blurted out to reporters that Ono had sexually harassed him.

His lawyer, Patrick K. Brosnahan Jr., hinted that Karsan, who is 50 and lives with his wife and 26-year-old son, was concerned that he was close to retirement age and needed to be compensated with some kind of severance package. Prosecutors said Ono paid him a salary of $150,000 to $200,000 as her driver.

Karsan gave Ono a letter saying that he "was looking for her to compensate him for his years of service and that he worked hard and his life was nearly ruined by the hard work he put in on this job."

"He felt that she owed him," the letter said. And if Ono "did not take care of him," he would expose her most private life. Among the salacious details he claimed to have were recordings of Ono's political views and a photograph of her in her pajamas.

Karsan also claimed that he had been poisoning Ono, the official said, although the police did not find any evidence that that was true.

A neighbor in Amityville, Deborah Waring was reported as saying, Karsan made small talk with neighbors and gave them Christmas chocolates every year.

Waring said she once helped him push Ono's Bentley out of his snowy driveway.

Investigators said Karsan claimed he had rigged a car to record Ono's conversations, including her views on matters of government, but the police examined his cars and found no evidence of recording devices.

Karsan, thin and tall, at 6-foot-1, wearing a long black woolen overcoat, his white hair swept back, said nothing and no plea was entered during his arraignment Thursday. Judge Tanya Kennedy ordered him jailed until he could post bail of $250,000 cash or $500,000 bond and provide assurance that the money did not come from illegal activity.

Kennedy also issued orders of protection against Karsan for Ono and her lawyer.