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Convicted Scammer Back In Slammer

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Oct 24, 2008 5:32 am US/Mountain

Convicted Scammer Back In Slammer

Written for cbs4denver.com by Brian Maass, bmaass@cbs.com
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (CBS4) ― Self proclaimed "artist" Don Tuttle, who regularly attempted to get women to pose nude, was in jail in Las Vegas Thursday after allegedly violating terms of his Colorado probation.

A CBS4 investigation first caught up to Tuttle in February. He had been placing ads online and in local publications seeking assistants to help him set up an art gallery. He would usually ask the women if they would pose nude for his artwork or help recruit other women to shed their clothes for the "sculptor."

Tuttle has never been able to show a single piece of art, or picture of any artwork he's done to CBS4 or any of the women he has recruited.

He would typically pay the women who worked for him with personal checks that invariably bounced, or were written on closed accounts. Englewood Police estimated Tuttle wrote about $142,000 in bad checks.

Earlier this year he pleaded guilty to felony theft and was sentenced to three years probation.

But on Tuesday of this week, a Las Vegas woman, Sabrina Gayhart, contacted CBS4. She said she had answered an ad on Craigslist in Las Vegas placed by Don Tuttle. He said he was hiring people to help him set up, and work in an art gallery.

Gayhart said he promised her a $70,000 salary and hired her on the spot after meeting her in a Las Vegas casino. She said her first assignment was to show up at a modeling agency where Tuttle planned to paint nude models for a cancer benefit.

But Gayhart was suspicious and Googled "Tuttle," finding the CBS4 stories online.

She and a second woman then contacted law enforcement authorities, suspecting Tuttle was engaging in the same type of scam that got him arrested in Colorado.

It turns out Tuttle was wanted on an outstanding warrant from Arapahoe County for not complying with the terms of his probation.

When Tuttle showed up at a Las Vegas modeling agency to check out potential nude models, Las Vegas police also showed up and arrested Tuttle.

"Now what is this all about, tell me?" said Tuttle as he was being placed in handcuffs. Told there was an outstanding warant for his arrest "I'm innocent, I'm going to fight this," he pleaded to a Las Vegas television reporter who was on the scene.

Asked what he was doing in Las Vegas, Tuttle responded "Live, live OK?"

While he had apparently not taken any money from any of the women in Las Vegas, or bounced checks to them, they suspect he was planning to.

A spokeswoman for the Arapahoe County District Attorney's Office said the district attorney would seek to have Tuttle extradited back to Colorado. At last word, he was being held in a Las Vegas area jail.

(© MMIX CBS Television Stations, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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