'Evil Elmo' [VIDEOS]: Dan Sandler Pleads Not Guilty to Extortion Charges, Anti-Semitic Street Performer Demands $2 Million from Girl Scouts

A 49-year-old homeless man has been charged with trying to extort $2 million from the Girl Scouts. Dan Sandler, most known for his anti-Semitic rants while dressed in an Elmo suit last year in New York City, reportedly sent harassing voicemails and e-mails to a Girl Scouts supervisor he previously met while working at the organization in a temp job. Prosecutors claim that when this supervisor told Sandler (who also goes by "Adam") to stop contacting her, he threatened to spread false rumors about sex abuse in the organization unless it gave him a high-paying position or paid him a large sum of money.

Prosecutors in Sandler's case claimed that one of his many rambling e-mails to the Girl Scouts read:

"I want a telecommute job from home of life at 150K. Or a two million dollar cash settlement. As you know, the newspapers like to cover my evil Elmo scenario ... How you treat me as a person will go a long way in regards to how I treat the Girl Scouts in the press, on the Internet and on u-tube."

Attached to one of the other e-mails was a photo of an Elmo costume stuffed in the trunk of a car, titled "Interstate Kidnapping of Elmo."

Sandler's defense attorney Lawrence Gerzog argued for a lower bail to be set, claiming his client was suffering from "mental health issues" and that his e-mail rants were never a real threat.

Last year Sandler was accused of going on an anti-Semitic tirade while dressed as the "Sesame Street" character in Times Square. Sandler pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and was sentenced to two days of community service. After leaving New York, Sandler took his Elmo act to San Francisco and lived in a car. There he was arrested on a warrant in the New York extortion case on May 9. Following his arrest, he told investigators that he was being followed byt the State Department.