FAYETTEVILLE — Former real estate developer Brandon Barber was released Wednesday from the Washington County jail after paying an outstanding debt owed to a Las Vegas casino since 2007.
Barber forwarded court documents to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on Thursday showing he had reached a settlement with the Venetian hotel and casino to pay a total of $30,050 and that a Nevada arrest warrant has been dropped. He had owed the casino $52,500, according to the warrant.
“This has been another in a long line of humbling experiences. I’m just glad to be out,” Barber said Thursday.
Barber had been in jail since Monday morning. He was pulled over by police near College Avenue and Lafayette Street for not wearing a seat belt, according to a police report. When Barber’s identification was checked, the Nevada warrant was discovered and Barber was arrested.
Bernie Zadrowski, chief deputy district attorney for Clark County, Nevada, issued an arrest warrant for Barber, 34, in September. He was charged with one count of felony check writing for the amount of the debt. Barber said he had signed lines of credit through the casino and did not write checks.
Zadrowski did not return two telephone messages to his office Thursday asking for comment.
Barber filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on July 31, 2009, claiming debts up to $53.2 million and less than $100,000 in assets. A debt of $60,000 to the Venetian was listed in the filing, along with $125,000 owed to the Bellagio hotel and casino.
Chapter 7 bankruptcy allows for liquidation of assets to satisfy outstanding debts.
Barber is accused of running up the debt at the Venetian with at least three draws on Chambers Bank of Northwest Arkansas. He paid back a portion of that amount, Zadrowski said, but Barber stopped making payments a year ago and still owes $48,000, an amount that includes penalties.
Barber’s attorney, Vaughn Knight, had filed several motions through Arkansas Western District Federal Bankruptcy Court to quash the warrant and a hearing had been set for Thursday morning. The hearing was canceled when the warrant and charges were dropped Wednesday by Zadrowski, Knight said.
In the motion to quash, Knight called the Clark County district attorney’s office a virtual private-debt collector for the Venetian, and said the office was attempting an endrun around the debtor protections in the bankruptcy code.
Information for this article was contributed by Richard Massey of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Arkansas, Pages 13 on 06/26/2010