'Out of Town' Sued by MBTA

The owner of Out of Town News, once known to some as the unofficial "mayor" of the Square, is being sued by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) for failing to pay for monthly T passes sold at his ticket agency.

The suit, filed January 28 in Suffolk County Superior Court, alleges that Sheldon P. Cohen and his out of Town Newspapers, Inc., sold $623,431 worth of monthly T passes during December 1993 and January 1994 and failed to reimburse the MBTA.

The suit claims he bounced a $306,931 check for the December passes.

The civil suit also alleges that Cohen obtained the January passes even though he knew that he could not pay for them of for the December passes he had sold.

A woman who answered the phone at Cohen's Harvard Square business said he was "unavailable" for comment on the case, and his attorney, Robert J. Rutecki, would not comment.

The lawsuit is the latest in a seemingly endless series of setbacks for Cohen, once the president of the Harvard Square Business Association's board of directors.

Last winter, Cohen was forced to close Reading international a 24-year-old bookstore he owned on Mass. Ave. near Harvard Square.

In addition, his wife, Beverly S. Cohen, has filed for divorce. The MBTA's suit cites a motion form the divorce case in which Cohen argues "the corporate and business entities he owns which his wife sought to value were deeply in debt and had no positive net worth".

Documents in Cohen's divorce suit also say he is pursuing Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection according to the MBTA suit.

In addition to these problems the Cambridge Chronicle reported the Cohen had to move his office form 1280 Mass. Ave. last fall because he couldn't afford the rent.

An official at the Nile Company, from which he rented the office, told the Chronicle that he owed "thousands" and that Nile, too, was considering suing him.

The Chronicle also reported that Cohen owes the MBTA an additional $1.2 million for leasing concession space that he rents to individual concessionaires in the Alewife T station and in Orange Line T stations from Forest Hills to Back Bay.

In light of Cohen's financial state, the MBTA has sought to freeze his assets in an effort to recoup its losses.

"It is evident that Mr. Cohen's business ventures are in fiscal ruin and that he may convert assets of the MBTA to have them survive," the lawsuit states.