ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, November 15, 1996 TAG: 9611150059
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: ROCKY MOUNT
SOURCE: TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER
Grand larceny and fraud charges against charismatic antique dealer Clyde Bryant have been dropped for the time being by Franklin County Commonwealth's Attorney Cliff Hapgood.
Bryant, who was a fugitive wanted by the FBI just a few months ago, is now a free man.
However, he could faces a federal indictment, depending on the results of an ongoing FBI investigation.
He also faces civil lawsuits claiming he didn't repay loans that total more than $1 million.
His wife, Wanda, has filed for bankruptcy, claiming debts of more than $6 million. Wanda Bryant, in U.S. Bankruptcy Court documents, says that she signed her power of attorney over to her husband and that she was unaware of the severity of the couple's financial problems.
Attached to the bankruptcy claim is a list of 50 creditors, including such prominent people as William Pannill, a member of the Pannill Knitting Co. family of Martinsville.
One of the grand larceny charges in Franklin County - involving antique furniture - was brought by Warner Dalhouse, retired chairman of First Union Bank of Virginia.
Hapgood said he decided to drop the Franklin County charges against Bryant - with the option of reinstating them later - because of the pending federal investigation.
If Bryant is indicted at the federal level and convicted, he's likely to face a stiffer sentence than he would in Franklin County court.
It didn't make sense to pursue the prosecution of Bryant in Franklin County if that would work against - or parallel to - the federal investigation, Hapgood said.
For instance, convictions against Bryant in Franklin County could eliminate the use of evidence at the federal level because of double jeopardy concerns.
Hapgood also said resources and the cost to taxpayers played a part in his decision.
The charges against Bryant involve witnesses in several states, including Virginia, Texas, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
"If I want to send someone to interview a witness, then I'm going to have to send someone on a plane," Hapgood said. "The FBI can call one of their offices in a particular state and have a local agent do the interview."
Some involved with the Bryant case were perplexed by Hapgood's timing. Because he hasn't been indicted in federal court, and a Franklin County bond against him was wiped away when the charges were dropped Thursday, Bryant is free to do whatever he wants.
And because he is accused of fleeing once - Bryant maintains that he didn't flee, but left the state to get some needed rest from his business troubles - some believe he could do it again.
"I'm not worried about that," Hapgood said.
But others are concerned.
"I'm shocked that, with all the [charges] against him, that there's nothing to hold him," said Eric Maus, who once worked for Bryant. Maus' father had filed a fraud charge in Franklin County against the former antique dealer.
Bryant, 51, ran Franklin Antiques on U.S. 220 between Rocky Mount and Boones Mill.
In the early 1980s, he was a jail inmate in Franklin County, where he was transferred while serving time for a drug conviction in Roanoke County.
Bryant also was convicted of bilking a Roanoke bank out of $75,000 in 1979.
Wherever he's been, Bryant's personality has won friendship.
A Roanoke County jailer wrote a letter to a federal judge in 1982 asking him to reduce Bryant's sentence because of the inmate's "ability to make things happen in a way that most of us just dream about."
Bryant and his attorney, David Nixon of Roanoke, had been scheduled to appear at a preliminary hearing in Franklin County on Thursday.
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