A Queens judge put her foot down in the case of a podiatrist wannabe who resorted to purse-snatching to pay for school – sentencing him to up to three years in prison yesterday.
Quinn Nelson, 28, a fourth-year student at the New York College of Podiatric Medicine, was charged with snatching the purses of four women along Queens Boulevard in September 2004.
Prosecutors said he and a Frenchwoman, Ketty Leclaire, whom he met over the Internet, prowled the dark streets around the boulevard looking for victims walking alone.
“He was educated,” Leclaire told the jury during Nelson’s first trial in June. “He was a medical student. He was very nice to me. It was fun knowing him.”
That jury couldn’t agree on a verdict, but a second panel convicted him earlier this month of larceny and possession of stolen property in connection with one of the incidents. He was acquitted in the other three.
Because Nelson had been in jail since his arrest more than a year ago, the aspiring hoof-healer could be out of prison right away.
His lawyer, Herbert Kellner, has said Nelson intends to complete his studies and practice podiatry after his sentence.