'Preppie killer' Robert Chambers, liable for $25 million judgment, appears for deposition on his finances

By SAMUEL MAULL Associated Press Writer

July 19, 2005, 3:06 PM EDT

NEW YORK -- "Preppie Killer" Robert Chambers, ordered to pay a $25 million judgment for strangling Jennifer Levin in 1986, responded under oath to questions about his finances Tuesday but apparently said very little.

Chambers was questioned by Howard Blau, a Levin family attorney who said he asked the ex-convict whether he had a job or any money, how he supported himself, how he could afford a lawyer and how he was able to buy a $7,000 car when he left prison. "He doesn't seem to remember anything," said Blau, who questioned Chambers at the State Supreme Court building in lower Manhattan. "He doesn't remember if he paid taxes in 2003. He can't even remember the town in New Jersey he drove to work to in 2004." Blau said Chambers attributed some of his financial support to the girlfriend with whom he lives in a $1,000-a-month apartment on East 57th Street near Second Avenue.

The lawyer said he believed she was a bartender. Chambers, now 38, pleaded guilty in 1988 to manslaughter for killing Levin, 18, in Central Park during what he said was rough sex. He served the maximum 15 years in prison and was freed on Valentine's Day in 2003.

After Chambers' plea, the victim's family got a wrongful death default judgment against him for $25 million. The family has said all the money it gets from Chambers will go to victims' rights organizations. Chambers' lawyer, Robert Dunne, said as they left the courthouse that his client was asked about his finances and "was completely forthcoming. He cooperated 100 percent with the proceeding today. He answered every question honestly and truthfully." Dunne said Chambers, ordered by State Supreme Court Justice Judith Gische to sit for the deposition with Blau, is not currently employed.

Upon being released from prison, Chambers has held jobs in a mill in Dalton, Ga., at a limousine company in Queens, and at a sports trophy manufacturer in New Jersey. Chambers said several months ago that he lost the job in New Jersey after he was arrested in November when police stopped his 1999 Saab in Harlem because he allegedly had an expired inspection sticker. During that stop police said they found a small amount of drugs and discovered that his driver's license had been suspended.

Chambers pleaded guilty earlier this month in Manhattan Criminal Court to the misdemeanor drug charge and unlicensed driving in exchange for a reduced sentence of three months in jail and a fine of $250. He faced up to a year in jail if he had been convicted after trial.

That's So New York