Arrested in Florida, builder faces theft charges
The official name of the charge is "Theft by Failure to Make Required Disposition."
The unofficial name is "scam."
Sometimes, contractors or other service providers rob Peter to pay Paul. Or buy a Mercedes. Or a speedboat. Or go to Rome. Or Aspen. Whatever. The victim's money is gone, and so is the thief.
In the case of Hurricane Sandy victims, this "theft" was especially egregious because the people allegedly scammed had already lost so much.
Last March, I wrote about several New Jersey people who trusted a contractor named Richard Woodard to make them whole again after Sandy had turned their lives upside down in the turbulent tidal surge that destroyed their homes.
Last week, Woodard was arrested in Dunedin, Fla., by the Pinellas County Sheriff's Department at the request of the Ocean County Prosecutor's Economic Crimes Unit.
The Ocean County unit's detectives are the people sorting out almost all the Sandy fraud. This is painstaking work, like any forensic accounting. It's like looking in a forest to see where the squirrels have buried the acorns, because many contractors operate and are licensed under different LLCs and have multiple bank accounts.
Ocean County Prosecutor Joseph D. Coronato said the arrest of Woodard is "the beginning, not the end" of his office's apprehension of Sandy-fraud contractors.
"He's one of just several contractors we've been investigating," Coronato said. "You're going to see us bring a series of these people to justice in the near future."
MORE: Recent Mark Di Ionno columns
Woodard, who was listed as president of Willwood Builders of Clearwater, Fla., is charged with taking more than $75,000 from seven victims. He had been under investigation by the New Jersey Attorney General's Office and prosecutors in Ocean and Mercer counties. The state Division of Consumer Affairs also had seven registered complaints against Woodard and Willwood Builders since July 2015.
It is not known if more charges are pending. Woodard was charged not only with taking client's insurance money and savings, but also absconding with their state Reconstruction, Rehabilitation, Elevation and Mitigation (RREM) grants without ever finishing the work he was paid to do.
According to the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office, bail was set at $150,000, without a 10 percent option. He is being held in Florida and extradition proceedings are underway.
Calls to Woodard's attorney, Anthony Sodano III, were not returned immediately, but in a March interview, Sodano said his client did not finish the contracted jobs because he was sick.
"From what I know, there isn't a whiff of deception," Sodono said. "He got sick and couldn't work ... He was devastated by not being able to complete these projects.
""He was in the hospital for 45 days," Sodono said."I don't want to go too far into what was wrong with him for privacy reasons, but he was debilitated from multiple conditions. He lost much of his physical abilities and some of his cognitive abilities. He was impaired.
"I feel horrible for the people and feel horrible for Rick," said Sodono. "This is a tragedy on every level."
As tragedies are measured, none might compare to that of Mickey and Marilyn Hannon of Forked River, even though they were not Sandy victims. The septuagenarian couple claimed they gave Woodard $207,000 to renovate their home to accommodate their handicapped son, James.
"What he did to us was unconscionable," Mickey Hannon said in March. "He took our life savings and disappeared. He destroyed the house. He took out two bathrooms and the kitchen then disappeared. That was long before (Woodard) says he got sick."
James Hannon died at age 42 in March 2015, while the house was ripped apart.
Mickey Hannon said that while his son was dying, he saw Woodard posting pictures of himself at the Philadelphia Phillies Phantasy Camp in Florida last February.
Marilyn Hannon said, "The very day my son died, he came and asked us for more money. He preyed on us because he knew we were desperate to get these renovations done."
Mary Lou Mickiewicz, of South Amboy, said Woodard deposited her full state elevation grant of $117,000 into his accounts, along with a $10,000 resettlement grant and a $5,000 insurance check.
Mickiewicz acknowledges Woodard was sick, but trusted him so much, she brought him soup in the hospital.
"He was like an angel to me," she said in the March column. "When I called, he came right away. He handled all the paperwork. He called the banks. He called the insurance companies. He filled out all the forms."
Then he disappeared.
Even worse for the Sandy victims is that the state now has liens against their homes until they return the RREM grant money or get the ordered repairs done.
"So not only did he steal $117,000 from my mother, now she owes the state $117,000," said Robert Mickiewicz, Mary Lou's son.
Patty McCourt, of Lavalette, gave her $111,000 RREM grant to Woodard and now also has a state lien against her house.
"I feel so stupid," she said last March. "My daughter wanted to have me committed when I told her what happened."
Mark Di Ionno may be reached at mdiionno@starledger.com. Follow The Star-Ledger on Twitter @StarLedger and find us on Facebook.