Ono's driver refused bail on threat charges

The Turkish chauffeur of Yoko Ono was today charged in New York with attempting to extort $2m (€1.5m) from her and remanded in custody after being refused bail.

Koral Karsan (aged 50), smartly dressed in a blue blazer with his hands cuffed behind him, pleaded not guilty when he appeared before Supreme Court Justice Michael Ambrecht.

The judge ordered that Karsan be remanded in custody even though his friends posted $250,000 (€189,500) cash bail earlier this week. Ambrecht said Karsan, a native of Turkey, could flee before his trial because he has ties abroad and there were unresolved questions about his immigration status.

Assistant District Attorney Anne Schwartz told Ambrecht that Karsan was in the United States illegally. Immigration officials issued a warrant yesterday to detain him while they decide on his status.

Karsan, of Amityville, New York, was arrested last Wednesday. He was accused of threatening to release embarrassing tape recordings and candid photographs of Ono, the widow of John Lennon, and possibly have her killed unless she gave him $2m (€1.5m).

Karsan warned Ono that he had people “on standby waiting to kill her” if she crossed him, prosecutors said.

Defence lawyer Robert Gottlieb said Karsan entered the US legally from Turkey in 1992 on a work visa. ”He has worked non-stop since then to get a green card (for permanent resident status),” the lawyer said. “The question is whether that was resolved properly.”

Gottlieb told the court yesterday that the immigration lawyer Karsan had hired turned out to be a fraud and has since died, so Karsan did not know where his immigration status stands.

Karsan is accused of handing Ono the extortion letter on December 8, the 26th anniversary of John Lennon’s death.

The former Beatle and Ono were returning home to their Manhattan apartment building, the Dakota, when Mark David Chapman opened fire with a .38-calibre revolver, fatally hitting Lennon four times.

Fans observe the anniversary of Lennon’s death by gathering at Strawberry Fields, a section of Central Park opposite the Dakota. In the past, Ono and son Sean Lennon have placed candles on the windowsill of their apartment as a message of recognition of the fans’ observance.