Murrells Inlet Sen. Cleary drops lawsuit

A lawsuit that S.C. Sen. Ray Cleary, R-Murrells Inlet, and his wife, Lisa, filed earlier this year against his former business partner, Gary Roberts, has been dropped.

The suit, which came on the back of accusations that Cleary was involved in stealing property from a Murrells Inlet restaurant, sought compensation for the libel/slander to the Clearys' name and reputation.

The suit was filed at the end of March and was dismissed earlier this week, according to Georgetown County Court records.

Roberts said in a statement that "the Clearys and I have mutually agreed to put aside our differences. Our restaurant business struggled, primarily because of the down economy. As we were winding down the affairs of our business, we had some disagreements over the distribution of various assets such as restaurant equipment. While we still do not agree on some of these matters, we do agree that our energies would be better spent on things other than a lawsuit."

Cleary said that he didn't really have a comment on the situation.

"We got into a bad business deal and we lost," he said. "But I'm not sure anybody wins in court."

In early March a report was filed with Georgetown County law enforcement by Roberts accusing the Clearys and three others involved in the operation of Fontinello's Restaurant of selling property involved in a lien.

Roberts said in the report that he, Cleary and two others had formed an LLC to operate Fontinello's in September 2010.

He said that in October he was "forced by Raymond Cleary to sell 15 percent of his partnership to Lisa Cleary, leaving Roberts with 10 percent of the company and making the Clearys the majority shareholders."

In February the partners decided to close the business, Roberts stated in his report.

He said the other partners began removing the inventory from the property, which they were not allowed to do because it was under a Uniform Commercial Code property lien agreement with First Federal Savings and Loan.

Roberts said he had previously provided the information about the property agreement to all the partners, warned them that the items were part of the lien and reminded them of it again as they removed property.

Later Cleary filed his own report accusing Roberts of providing false information to police.

Cleary said he should never have been mentioned in the report. He said in his report that he sold his share of the LLC to his wife in November and was no longer involved in the LLC.

The report said Cleary pointed out specific information within the Roberts' report that he stated were "made by Gary Roberts, while knowing them to be false."

Cleary went on to say that "contrary to information in the incident report filed by Gary Roberts, he was never the managing partner of the LLC. That between October - November 2010 he sold his [interest] in the LLC to his wife and therefore at that time had no remaining interest in the LLC. He has never contacted anyone about selling any of the equipment from the restaurant," according to the report.

Cleary also said in the report that "he felt that the statements in the incident report were made because of his political position."

And the Clearys also filed the lawsuit against Roberts for libel/slander.

Cleary also said the report was filed in an attempt to discredit him because elections are coming up in 2012.

"This is an attempt to discredit me. Which I can take." Cleary said. "But what's been done to my wife and kids I cannot take."

This story was originally published July 30, 2011 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Murrells Inlet Sen. Cleary drops lawsuit."