Something about James W. Steadman just didnt seem to be right to a U.S. Embassy employee in Guatemala who ran a criminal background check on the ex-con and found out he was a wanted man in Glasgow. Were trying to get him back from Guatemala, Barren County Commonwealths Attorney Phil Patton said. Representatives from the United States will meet next week with representatives of the Guatemalan government in an effort to try to deport Steadman as an undesirable, Patton said. Steadman, 60, disappeared after a Barren County grand jury indicted him Aug. 4, 2000, for two counts of theft by deception over $300 involving thefts of $300,000 from two Barren County men, according to court records. Three days later Barren Circuit Court Judge Benjamin Dickinson closed the case under the fugitive code, leaving intact an active warrant for Steadmans arrest should he turn up. Barren County Sheriff Barney Jones entered Steadmans information into the National Crime Information Center, a computer database used by law enforcement officials to check criminal histories. Several Steadman sightings were reported but never substantiated, until now, Jones said. This is the information that was given to me but I havent been able to verify that, Jones said prefacing his statement about how Steadman was found. We had him entered in NCIC. Allegedly, he was in a conversation with a group of people there (in Guatemala) and one of them just happened to be a U.S. government employee. And the person observed that things just didnt seem to be right and they got information on who he actually was and ran him through NCIC and found out he was a wanted person, Jones said. Jones had no other information about Steadmans stay in Guatemala. But Steadmans past includes fraud convictions in Kentucky, Texas, California, Florida and Michigan, Patton said. The person who identified Steadman was an embassy employee, Patton said. I was advised by the U.S. Marshals office (Wednesday) that there are perhaps some new victims in Radcliff, Patton said. Steadman, who had a prior work history as a legal aid while he was incarcerated in a state penitentiary, obtained, after his prison release, work from Radcliff attorney Willie Neal. Neals firm used Steadmans paralegal services on a contract basis. Steadman was never an employee of Neals firm, Neal said. As far as his legal knowledge went, he had been appointed (as a legal aid) to represent a former inmate on a case in federal court (in Bowling Green). He was appointed by a federal judge to represent a former federal inmate, Neal said. If he was good enough for a federal judge to allow him to work on cases then he was good enough for me, Neal said. While he was working with Neal, two Glasgow men claimed in court records that they gave him $300,000 which he was to pay back but did not. Those men are suing Steadman and Neal in civil court. If plaintiffs are to be believed, in a matter of hours, they met a complete stranger, Mr. Steadman, who claimed to be an agent for an attorney who practiced several counties away. Neither plaintiff knew the attorney, Neal said in a court filing. Within hours of such alleged communications, plaintiffs handed over a total of $300,000 to Steadman for some unknown reason, the court filing said. In a telephone interview, Neal said he didnt want to hear Steadmans name. What happened with him actually had nothing to do with me. I regret that it happened, Neal said. For whatever reason they loaned him the money. I have no idea, but they deserved to be paid back for it, Neal said. Even though the two men worked together on certain legal matters, Neal didnt know Steadman that well except to describe him as a balding, older white man who was very likable and had an interest in quarter horses. I worked with him on occasion when he was appointed in federal court in Owensboro. I met him while he was incarcerated because of legal work he was doing. He worked as a legal aid while he was incarcerated, Neal said. I didnt know him that long. He wasnt really with me. He had a paralegal services company that I basically had him doing some work for me, Neal said. He did excellent legal work, Neal said. If Steadman is deported after next weeks meeting, he will be taken to Texas. Kentucky officials can extradite him from there.