Ex-manager of Ruth's Chris Steak House in Garden City stole more than $230,000 from restaurant, police say

The former manager of a Garden City steak house was arrested Monday and charged with stealing more than $230,000 from the restaurant in a case Nassau County police said dated back almost six years.

Barry Pearlstein, 69, of Orlando, Florida, surrendered Monday to detectives from the crimes against property squad. He was charged with second-degree grand larceny and 10 counts of falsifying business records. He was arraigned before Judge Joy Watson in First District Court in Hempstead. The judge set bail at $25,000 cash or bond.

If convicted of the top charge, Pearlstein faces 5 to 15 years in prison, Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice said. Pearlstein is due back in court next Tuesday.

Police said Pearlstein became the manager of the Ruth's Chris Steak House on Old Country Road in Garden City in January 2003, and said that between Jan. 1, 2009, and June 18 of this year, he "caused a loss" in excess of $230,000 by reducing cash deposit amounts.

Pearlstein managed this by underreporting sales and other items, police said. Rice said the incidents occurred on 511 separate dates and said Pearlstein "made false entries in business records" to conceal the situation from Ruth's Chris.

The alleged theft was uncovered when the executive management of the steak house, in conjunction with the crimes against property squad and the Nassau district attorney's office, conducted an audit for the time period in question.

But Pearlstein's attorney, David Besso of Bay Shore, questioned why any money had gone undiscovered for so long by a major restaurant. "It's very possible it's an error of accounting on their part," he said.

Rice said Pearlstein was terminated and he then relocated to Florida. After the investigation, police said, Pearlstein was located in Orlando -- and was "advised" to surrender himself to authorities in Nassau.

"In this case, a trusted employee took advantage of his position to steal thousands from a business where he had been employed for over a decade," Rice said in a statement.

With Ellen Yan

By John Valenti

john.valenti@newsday.com

John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”