Judge orders restitution after pool contractor left jobs unfinished, and customers out tens of thousands
MINNEAPOLIS -- A judge has granted the Attorney General's motion for default in a civil suit against a pool contractor accused of leaving a number of jobs unfinished and Minnesota families out tens of thousands of dollars.
WCCO's Jennifer Mayerle has reported on the case of Charles Workman. Family after family told Mayerle they were fooled by Workman, a contractor they hired to build a swimming pool. Backyards were ripped up with gaping holes left behind. Work on promised pools was left unfinished or not started at all.
"He ruined my yard, cut my patio, broke my fence and took my money," Kyle Swenson said. "Now it's time away from my family because I'm doing extra things to make more money on the side. And it doesn't stop there. Every single day it's added stress, to my family, to me, to whatever my plans are."
After WCCO exposed Workman took more than a million dollars collectively from more than a dozen Minnesota families and abandoned the jobs, Attorney General Keith Ellison civilly sued him last summer.
On Wednesday, a judge ordered $1,132,895.78 in restitution, the same amount in civil penalties, state court costs and fees, and he can never work in the construction industry in Minnesota again.
"This man lied to customers about almost everything. He lied about his qualifications. He lied about his availability. He lied to get payments. He lied about his schedule. He lied about how he was spending his customers money," Bennett Hartz, with the Attorney General's office, said. "He lied about what work he would do and when he would do it or why he hadn't done it. And when caught, he promised customers refunds that never came. In all this fraud he had one purpose: to get as much money as he could and run off with it."
"For some people he tore up their yards and left huge pits. For others he poured concrete and then left the project dangerously abandoned, and in most cases, he did nothing at all," Hartz told the judge.
Judge Vanderlist ruled in favor of the victims awarding the families restitution, ordering Workman pay civil penalties plus the state's costs and fees. And ruling he can never work in the construction business in Minnesota again.
"Instantly it's joy. Being validated basically for what we've been pursuing, what we've been feeling as victims just knowing that this was a true deception," Swenson said.
Families who did their research and feel taken advantage of by Workman found each other and now feel vindicated.
"Today was a form of justice and acknowledgement that what he did was wrong and that it has no place here in Minnesota," victim David Olson said.
The next step is collecting the money from Workman. Some wonder if there's any left. It's up the Attorney General's office to recoup it.
"When people are running and they're slippery, when they're hard to find, we're going to have to collect that judgement which is a whole other process. But Minnesotans can rest assured that we will," Ellison said.
The group says they're going to continue to push for justice.
"It's motivating to see action. It's motivating to see results, now you want more. You want to see where it's going to go," Swenson said.
The ruling is part of a civil lawsuit. The FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office are leading the criminal investigation into Workman.
Workman did not respond to our request for comment.
Workman has a previous criminal conviction in his home state of Kentucky of theft by deception.