PORTLAND (AP) – Murder suspect Steven Clark partied hard and faced mounting debts as his mortgage business foundered in the days and weeks leading up to the slaying of a man who had worked for him.

But no clear motive for the death of Robert Wagner emerged as the 28-year-old Clark made his first appearance before a Cumberland County Superior Court judge on Friday.

The body of Wagner, who was 28 and lived in Gray, was found in Baldwin on Wednesday near the home of one of Clark’s relatives. Autopsy results have not been released, and on Friday the judge granted the prosecutor’s request to keep the arrest file sealed until next Friday.

Clark’s Portland business, Sebago Lake Mortgage Co., was the subject of complaints to the state Office of Consumer Credit Regulation that it had failed to arrange promised loans and pay commissions.

During a Feb. 10 hearing, mortgage company employees told investigators that Clark had a drug problem and had intimidated a loan officer by throwing a water cooler jug at him during a meeting and threatened in a voice mail message to beat him up.

A state order issued Thursday that bars Clark from re-entering the mortgage profession without state permission said he “clearly does not possess the necessary financial responsibility, character or fitness” to own or operate a lending business.

The order also said Clark owes nearly $15,000 in fines and payments to former employees and customers. The fact that the order came down a day after Clark was charged with murder was a coincidence, said William Lund, director of the consumer credit office.

After Clark closed his Portland business about two months ago, he asked if he could set up shop at a mortgage company Wagner and his brother had started, according to Wagner’s stepfather, Bill Ferrell of Camden. The brothers declined.

The victim’s brother, Rowan Wagner, went to the police the day Robert Wagner went missing Feb. 15, Ferrell said.

Clark’s murder arrest followed a night of drinking with Wagner and other friends at the Portland strip club Platinum Plus. Clark had a reputation as a wild partyer who liked to drive his Hummer, drink and get into scuffles in the Old Port, said Jay Jack, who ran a martial arts business in the basement below Clark’s company.

Clark was charged last year with assaulting a man and the police officer who tried to arrest Clark. He was acquitted of the assault charges, but paid a $1,000 fine for resisting arrest. Clark has also received heavy fines for motor vehicle offenses.

—

Information from: Portland Press Herald, http://www.pressherald.com

AP-ES-02-24-06 1206EST

Copy the Story Link