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I-Team Update: Controversial Contractor In Court
I-Team Update: Controversial Contractor In Court - Friday, December 7, 2007 at 5:14PM EST
Reported by: Jeff Chirico
Friday, Dec 7, 2007 @05:14pm EST
WILKES-BARRE, LUZERNE COUNTY --A follow-up to an ongoing- I-Team investigation that we first brought you, nearly a year ago. A Wilkes-Barre contractor --accused of taking $150,000 dollars and not doing the work he promised appears in court Friday.
Joe Burns spoke to WBRE News for the first time as our cameras followed him out of the courthouse. Last winter, the I-Team told you about numerous complaints against him. Friday, he says he did nothing wrong despite what customers and the state attorney general claim.
Burns says "every person that gave me money did get their jobs completed to the amount of money." Joseph Burns denies he ripped anyone off. He says he didn't finish work because customers didn't pay him in full. "Why are you suing each and every one of them? They owe me money."
But customers tell a different story. Bob Coleman wonders “I don't know how he sleeps at night. He's nothing more than a thief." Coleman says he paid Burns more than $24,000 dollars for a new roof and siding on his Duryea home and got shoddy work. Another contractor who looked at Coleman’s home says “it was bad workmanship. The roof lines weren't cut straight. The roof is rusting."
Roseann Briggs of Nanticoke says "he can sit and con people and thinks he's right." Briggs' says Burns never began installing a metal roof on her Nanticoke church. Burns says he delivered the materials but never finished the job. Seven victims testified against burns working as Custom Construction Corporation.
Deputy Attorney General Brian Nixon says burns also violated a previous court order after other complaints in 80s and 90s. Nixon says “specifically in the order it’s spelled out that he was to be providing us copies of contracts from September 30th, 2005. He admitted he did not do that."
Months before the attorney general's office took Burns to court, the I-Team revealed a string of what customers call fraud. And like he does to his customers, Burns is turning the story around on us. Burns says "I'm suing you too. I'm suing WBRE."
The state presented its case Friday. Burns will have his chance next month. If the judge finds that burns did violate that previous court order, he could be banned from working in the business and ordered to pay back his customers. | | |
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