ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, August 3, 1996 TAG: 9608050042
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
Clyde Bryant, the charismatic antique dealer whose wheeling and dealing landed him in trouble - both financial and legal - was released Friday from the Franklin County Jail.
But like some of Bryant's financial deals, his $50,000 bond was not without controversy.
Richard Hamlett, a Roanoke developer who recently came out on the short end of a multimillion-dollar divorce from actress Debbie Reynolds, offered last week to post the bond after Bryant turned himself in on grand larceny charges.
Franklin County Commonwealth's Attorney Cliff Hapgood objected to the bond because he was not satisfied that the four properties Hamlett submitted through a corporation were sufficient to cover it. Hapgood also raised questions about Hamlett's role in the corporation.
Hamlett testified during a hearing Friday, and "we also discussed the fact that Debbie Reynolds had $8 million worth of judgments against him," Hapgood said. The prosecutor said he was not as concerned about whether Bryant would skip town as much as he was about whether the property posted was sufficient to cover the bond.
Despite Hapgood's concerns, a General District judge approved the bond, and Bryant was released a short time later.
Bryant, who ran Franklin Antiques on U.S. 220, faces three grand larceny charges in Franklin County, a federal investigation, and a number of civil lawsuits seeking more than $1 million in loans that creditors said he didn't repay.
Bryant had said earlier that he plans to live with his mother in Roanoke County while awaiting trial on the grand larceny charges, which involve antique furniture that he was given to sell on consignment.
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