Ken Clay - Legal Issues

Legal Issues

Clay's legal troubles began in 1986. He faced up to twenty years in prison on four counts of grand larceny for stealing $30,000 from Jostens Inc., a school ring company for whom he worked. Campbell County, Virginia prosecutors cut a deal with his attorneys that kept him out of prison. Instead, he paid $15,000 restitution to Jostens plus $1,394.64 in court fees, got 1,000 hours of community service, five years supervised probation and a suspended sentence.

In February 1992, Clay stole a car from the Bedford County, Virginia car dealership he worked for, and was sentenced to a year in jail. While serving his time, it was discovered that Clay withheld information about three previous arrests from his probation officers (The grand larceny and two DUIs). An additional three years in the Campbell County jail was tacked onto his sentence.

Clay moved to Bradenton, Florida after his release and was accused in 1999 of identity theft. He used his girlfriend's identity to falsify credit card applications, to lease and insure a 1998 Nissan Pathfinder and to create a checking account from which he forged checks. He was charged with five counts of forgery, five counts of scheming to defraud, nine counts of uttering a forged instrument and four counts of grand theft, and could have been sentenced to more than twenty years in prison had he been convicted on all charges by a jury. Clay agreed to pay back creditors, and Manatee County Circuit Judge Charles Williams sentenced him to fifteen years of probation.

In 2005, Clay began working for the Copy Concept copy machine company. Having only made one sale a month and a half into his employment with the company, he falsified a sales order for a Toshiba e-Studio 3511 Copier that would have landed him a $7,500 commission. He forged the supposed buyer's signature on three documents. The jury convicted him of grand theft after a one day trial. He had been offered a plea agreement that included six months in the county jail before the trial, however, did not accept it. Prosecutors recommended a prison sentence of three years, however, Circuit Judge Rick De Furia sentenced him to five years in prison citing his past criminal activity. He was released from prison on February 16th, 2012 and is back living in Lynchburg, where he was born and raised.