Baseball pictures at issue in court

Suit: NLR buyer missed payment

John Rogers, a North Little Rock-based collector and trader of sports memorabilia, has been sued in Pulaski County Circuit Court over failure to meet a payment in a $1.35 million acquisition of historical baseball photographs.

Rogers had paid an initial $500,000 and the first of 10 annual payments of $85,000, but he did not make the second, which was due April 1, according to complainant Mary Brace of Chicago.

A spokesman for Rogers Photo Archive questioned in a court filing the copyright integrity of some of the photos and whether Rogers really owns all of the photos and negatives. Efforts on Monday to reach Rogers or someone representing him were unsuccessful.

Brace said in the complaint filed July 11 that her late father, George Brace, and George Burke "combined to photograph virtually every major league baseball player who played in Wrigley Field or Comiskey Park from 1929 through 1994 ... hundreds of thousands of photographs ... during baseball's golden era."

She said an FBI search of Rogers' business and residence Jan. 28 might be related to an earlier investigation by the agency and subsequent federal charges against three Chicago men. A search of online records for the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of Illinois showed no charges filed against Rogers.

Deb Green, public affairs officer for the FBI's Little Rock field office, said Monday that she could not comment on "an ongoing investigation."

Rogers said on Feb. 3 that the FBI had allowed him to take back "a lot" of the items, according to the complaint.

Brace said in her filing that she contacted Rogers about her concerns as to whether the Brace and Burke collection had been seized and whether he could meet the terms of the contract.

She said Rogers called her Feb. 6 to assure her that the payment would be made by April 1, she said in her complaint. But 90 days passed with no payment, and Brace filed suit seeking an injunction to stop Rogers from selling the images and possibly diminishing the collateral. It also seeks payment of $765,000, the balance of the purchase price.

She said that Rogers had not fulfilled another term in the agreement, that he did not make suitable digital copies of the photos for her personal use.

North Little Rock attorney Blake Hendrix was listed in the suit as the attorney for Rogers, but he said Monday that he was not representing Rogers in this case. Hendrix said he did not know who was representing Rogers. He did not immediately return a subsequent call.

Carmen Smith, Rogers Photo Archive in-house counsel, said in an email March 31, which is part of the court record, that "many of the original negatives/photographs that are stamped 'Brace' or 'Burke' are indeed not the work of George Brace or George Burke" and were "never actually sold with clear title."

Arkansas Business reported that she has left the company. An attempt to reach her Monday was unsuccessful.

"Many of the Brace images are up for licensing on Getty Images, with the underlying copyright claimed by someone else," Smith said in the email.

"Given the vast number of problems that we have encountered in such a short period of time," she continued, "the best resolution may be to return the collection, unwind the agreement, and repay any funds already paid."

Brace and Rogers signed a contract June 25, 2012, for the sale of the images.

Three men faced fraud charges in the Chicago investigation. William Mastro, a sports memorabilia dealer, and Doug Allen and Mark Theotikos were charged in U.S. District Court of the Northern District of Illinois.

Attorneys for the men offered updates on the disposition of the cases.

Mastro pleaded guilty to one count of fraud and awaits sentencing this fall. Theotikos is scheduled to enter a guilty plea Monday, and Allen plans to go to trial Sept. 28.

Rogers Photo Archive had revenue of about $8 million in 2010 and $10 million in 2011, Rogers said in 2011.

Rogers is a longtime collector of sports memorabilia, spending $1.6 million in 2008 to buy a rare 1909 Honus Wagner baseball card. In 2009, he began collecting photo archives and now owns archives of a number of major newspapers.

Business on 07/22/2014

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