NY hedge swindler's guilty plea denied

NEW YORK Magistrate Judge Lisa Margaret Smith in White Plains asked Samuel Israel III on Wednesday how he pleaded to a charge of failure to surrender.

Israel replied, "Guilty."

But the magistrate said she could not accept the plea, and referred the case to another judge.

Israel was supposed to report to a Massachusetts prison hospital on June 9. Instead, he left his SUV on a bridge north of New York City with the words "Suicide is Painless" etched into dust on the hood. He surrendered July 2 after more than three weeks on the lam.

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