[Charley Lillard]

Herald -Republican
ANGOLA — A Steuben Superior Court jury found an Angola businessman guilty of corrupt business practice and two of seven counts of theft in a two-day trial that wrapped up Friday night.

Gregory John Long, 48, Lake James, had sold specialty auto parts across the country but didn’t provide goods that reflected what were promised in two of the cases brought against him.

The case stemmed from when Long marketed parts on eBay and specialty auto publications. The parts were purported to be hard-to-find items for older vehicles.

The sales ranged up to $13,000 and were shipped to buyers from New York to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

“They were looking for a specific thing and they were paying big money; $10,000, $13,000, to me that’s big money,” Prosecutor Tom Wilson said. “Mr. Long didn’t deliver.”

Long’s attorney, Tim Cain, said the case was merely a matter of a few customers not happy with business transactions.

“This is not a criminal case. This is the case of a businessman with a few disgruntled customers,” Cain said said in his closing argument. “Greg Long didn’t cheat anybody. He didn’t attempt to steal from anybody and he certainly didn’t conduct corrupt business activity.”

To prove the Class C felony racketeering charge, Wilson had to show that Long committed a crime at least twice in order to benefit his business enterprise. For that, Long faces up to eight years in prison. He will be sentenced in April.

In his final argument, Cain warned the jury that if it found Long guilty of theft and racketeering, no Steuben County business would be safe from criminal charges.

“There is one thing Mr. Cain is correct about. If people do business they way he (Long) does, they’re asking for trouble,” Wilson said.

Wilson said Long must have believed that the customers he cheated from great distances away from Angola would not pursue their misfortune.

“I don’t think he thought they would complain but they did,” Wilson said. Victims from New York, New Jersey, Washington state and Vancouver were in Angola to testify against Long. Their original complaints were taken to the Angola Police Department. Most of the sales took place in 2004.

The two Class D felony counts Long was convicted on stemmed from the sale of performance parts classified as “new old parts,” those that were manufactured in a particular year but never bolted on to a vehicle.

In these two cases the parts in question were purportedly from 1969 and were sold in the range of $10,000. The parts sold were replicas. When Long was discussing the sales to his victims, he claimed that he had bought the parts in 1969 — when he would have been 11 years old.

Cain said Long tried to make good with customers who weren’t satisfied. Those who were in the gallery Friday night shook their heads in disbelief as they heard Cain try to maintain that Long had satisfied some of them and tried to make things right with his goods.

The jury deliberated for about three hours, going into chambers around 6 p.m. The trial started Thursday afternoon after jurors were seated.