PRINCETON -- A Princeton University professor charged last week with stealing 21 lawn signs for a local small business has hired an attorney to fight the charges, officials said.

John Mulvey, 67, has retained a lawyer and his case has been moved to Superior Court, according to the Princeton Municipal Court office. He was scheduled to appear today in Princeton Municipal Court.

Mercer County Superior Court does not yet show an appearance date for the case, officials there said today.

Mulvey, of Puritan Court, was recorded on video taking the 2-by-2-foot lawn signs, worth more than $20 each, for Princeton Computer Repairs, Tutoring and Digital Services, the owner of the business who turned the video over to police.

Mulvey, a professor of operations research and financial engineering and a founding member of the Bendheim Center for Finance, has said he would fight the charges and that he was merely picking up debris.

He said he never removed any signs from the ground.

"I have no reason to do that," he said in an interview last week. "I have nothing against signs or capitalism."

All of the signs, valued at $471, were found in Mulvey’s garage, police said. The signs were removed from the area of Rosedale and Elm roads beginning in June, police said.

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