Attorney: Books charge exaggerated

Attorney: Books
charge exaggerated

■ Lawyer says his client bought, borrowed and received books.

When University of Michigan police raided the apartment of a graduate student last month, they found about 560 books they said could be stolen.

But some of the books were purchased by student Kei Chi Chang, 34, some were borrowed from libraries and some were duplicates given to him, said Chang’s attorney, Scott Keillor.

“There’s a lot of exaggeration going on here,’’ said Keillor. “What we need is to do an inventory to see what we have.” Chang was charged with receiving and concealing stolen property worth more than $100 after U-M officers seized the books from his apartment. A preliminary exam is set for March 8. Conviction could bring a sentence of up to 15 years in prison.

Police were led to his apartment after he was arrested while making a telephone call from the U-M’s Hatcher Library to an Eastern Michigan University student, who told officers he was stalking and harassing her.

Chang, a native of Taiwan, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of stalking the woman and is scheduled to be sentenced March 29 in 14th District Court.

Most of the books taken from Chang’s apartment were volumes of Asian erotica, some dating back to the 19th century. Others are older, but nearly all of them are considered rare and valuable. Some of the books were damaged, with some pages removed or marred by attempts to remove bar codes that would trip off alarms if the manuscripts were taken out of the library.

Keillor said Chang would not comment on the case, adding, “Of course, he’s very upset this is hitting the press.”