Bail Set for Sports Show Promoter in Texas Case : Fraud charges: But authorities say there is little likelihood of charges being filed relating to Pasadena ‘Baseball Legends’ event.

The promoter accused of bilking businesses and such sports celebrities as Mickey Mantle and Don Drysdale at a recent Pasadena memorabilia show appeared before a U.S. magistrate in Los Angeles on Tuesday for a bail hearing on an unrelated fraud charge in Texas.

The man identified by authorities as Paul Hammack, but known to those involved in the “Baseball Legends” event as Ernest Dent, was arrested at his rented townhouse in Glendale last week on charges that he defrauded a Laredo man of about $70,000 in 1984.

At the request of Assistant U.S. Atty. Jeffrey Johnson, Magistrate John Kronenberg set bail at $25,000 and scheduled a detention hearing for Oct. 23.

Meanwhile, the Pasadena police investigation of the suspect for grand theft and writing bad checks related to the memorabilia show seems to have stalled, and authorities indicate little likelihood that charges will be filed.

“I’m not real optimistic. It’s a civil problem,” said Police Lt. Van Anthony.

“The matter is still under review. We have not made a decision to prosecute,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. David Disco, head of the county prosecutor’s Pasadena branch office.

That leaves those who say they are Hammack’s victims, including two who were in the magistrate’s courtroom, wondering what to do.

Maria Marin, owner of Golden Earth Graphics of Highland Park, a family printing business, silently watched the bearded, 300-pound promoter and started to cry as marshals led him away after the hearing.

“I want my money,” she called out to Hammack. “I’ll follow you from courtroom to courtroom.”

Hammack made no response.

Marin said the promoter still owes $25,156 for lithographs, posters and promotional materials for the Pasadena show.

“We are in real trouble. We are going to lose our business,” she said. “I feel really angry and really sad. I’m putting my daughter through college. My son was working here, and this was like a future for him. Now it’s all coming down.”

Also at the hearing was Terrence Thompson from the Boys and Girls Club of Whittier, which lost $1,620 spent on dozens of autographed baseballs and pictures it never received.

“Now we have neither the money nor the items,” said Thompson, volunteer fund-raising chairman for the club, which serves 1,000 underprivileged children. “We spent the money hoping to use the items for fund raising at future auctions. This has hurt us.”

Last week, Hammack’s attorney, Stephen R. Kahn of Century City, said the 43-year-old promoter “intends to abide by all his responsibilities and commitments” from the show.

After the bail hearing, Kahn said he did not know if his client had the financial resources to post his bond, saying: “He put everything he had in the show.”

Asked about his client’s name, Kahn said: “I think he’s admitting he’s Paul Hammack,” and said of the name Ernest Dent: “It’s a name he was using.”