THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 1, 1995 TAG: 9512010411
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KATHY CALONGNE, THE (SHREVEPORT) TIMES
DATELINE: SHREVEPORT, LA. LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines
Pirates owner Bernie Glieberman's classic car was seized by federal authorities Thursday after the team attorney was caught taking it away from Shreveport.
U.S. Marshal J.R. Oakes' office is investigating whether the attorney, Mark Gilliam, was attempting to hide the vehicle for Glieberman when he picked it up from the Ark-La-Tex Antique and Classic Vehicle Museum in downtown Shreveport and began driving it south.
Reached in Toronto where he is attending CFL meetings, Glieberman declined comment when asked if he ordered Gilliam to attempt to move the car.
Oakes said he doesn't believe it's a coincidence that the car was removed from the museum the same morning a newspaper article announced that the seizure order was in sight.
``That avenue is being considered,'' Oakes said.
Gilliam said he was driving the car to an undisclosed storage area when it ran out of gas. He called for a tow truck, which loaded the vehicle on a flatbed trailer.
The tow truck, with Gilliam in the truck's passenger seat, was stopped by a Caddo Parish sheriff's deputy.
The newspaper report stated that the company that sold the scoreboard at Independence Stadium to the Pirates had asked a federal judge to seize Glieberman's car, a 1948 Tucker Torpedo, which is worth up to $500,000. The company, Fairtron Corp. of Iowa, is asking for full payment of $273,932 for the scoreboard.
Glieberman acknowledged owing Fairtron for installing the scoreboard, but said the Pirates and Fairtron signed a contract calling for a payment schedule. However, when Fairtron was unable to obtain financing for the cost of installing the sign, Glieberman said the company demanded immediate payment.
``We made the first payment, as we were supposed to,'' he said. ``And then they sued us. They're trying to get it all at once and we don't owe it all at once.''
The order to seize the vehicle wasn't handed to Oakes' office until 11:30 a.m., about 90 minutes after Gilliam drove the car from the museum.
Museum vice president Roy Miller said museum officials contacted their attorney about what to do when they heard Gilliam was coming for the car. They were told ``without the seizure papers we couldn't deny him access to his own property.''
Gilliam said he was storing the car for Glieberman. He wouldn't say where he planned to put the car.
``I've never heard of a state where somebody can seize your property when you file a lawsuit,'' Glieberman said. ``It's completely off base to file a lawsuit, whether the suit is right or wrong, and to seize property at the same time.
``My attorney has told me that they'd better be right, that if they don't win the lawsuit and anything's done to that car, or if I happen to need it before I get it back, they're in big, big trouble.
``I go and give them my car on loan, I schlep it down there and now look what happens to me. ... If any damage happens to that car ...'' MEMO: Staff writer Harry Minium contributed to this report.
by CNB