Metro

Prosecutors seek 10-plus years for ex-assistant who ripped off Pulitzer heir Kenward Elmslie

A crooked personal assistant who looted more than $3.5 million in cash and artwork from an ailing newspaper heir deserves the maximum punishment for his “egregious abuse of trust,” prosecutors say.

James Biear faces up to 121 months in the slammer for ripping off poet and writer Kenward Elmslie, a grandson of famed publisher Joseph Pulitzer, after he began suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease.

In court papers filed today, Manhattan federal prosecutors noted that Biear, 50, “systematically, frequently and painstakingly stole from Elmslie” by swiping his prized personal possessions and sneaking them out of his Greenwich Village home.

The “callous scheme” included pilfering an Andy Warhol “Heinz 57” ketchup crate that Biear later sold for $220,000 to Warhol protegee “Baby Jane” Holzer, who testified against him last year.

“As our population ages, it is extremely important that the victimization of the elderly and infirm by their caregivers be strongly punished,” prosecutors Lisa Korologos and Seetha Ramachandran wrote.

Biear, who fired his lawyer after his conviction, has asked for no more than two years in the slammer, saying that’s what prosecutors previously offered if he pleaded guilty before trial.

His new, court-appointed defense lawyer didn’t return a request for comment.