Contractor at center of Harveys Lake controversy arrested

Aug. 16—A contractor at the center of controversy in Harveys Lake over the last few months was arraigned Monday on charges that he stole more than $47,000 of wood and other items from a man who had hired the contractor.

Jerry D. Brown, 61, of Dallas was charged with theft by unlawful taking, receiving stolen property and theft by failure to make required disposition of funds after he allegedly removed several items from a job site he was contracted to work on, and failed to bring them back by a date agreed upon by him and the attorney representing the man, who hired Brown, Manny Santayana.

Brown's work in Harveys Lake was the topic of an intense borough council meeting on June 21, with Santayana, a borough resident and property owner, claiming that borough zoning officer Maureen Oremus refers customers seeking zoning approval to use Brown, her boyfriend, creating a "conflict of interest" as said by Santayana in June.

Oremus denied the allegations made that evening and had the support of several members of the public who offered comment during the meeting.

A criminal complaint filed against Brown on Monday details the series of alleged events that led to Brown being charged.

According to the criminal complaint:

On April 26 of this year, Santayana came to the Harveys Lake police station to report the theft of wood and other items taken from his property on Lakeside Drive, Pole 147, with the items totaling $47,290 in value.

Santayana told police that he hired Brown to build a boathouse and dock at his property, with a contract signed by both parties outlining the scope of the work and stipulating the time frame that Brown had to finish the job.

A down payment of $10,000 from Santayana to Brown was made on Feb. 2, 2021, for Brown to begin work.

Additional payments were made of $20,000 on May 19, 2021, for frame wood and pilings, $24,666 on June 8, 2021 for construction of a wall that needed to be built before framework could begin and another $24,666 on July 20 for pilings to be put in, according to the police report.

The complaint says that when the pilings were purchased, Brown kept them at his property in Lake Township rather than at the job site. Santayana asked if he could visit the property, to which Brown agreed and Santayana took photos of the pilings.

During this time, a load of frame wood was delivered to the job site but kept on the other side of the road from the project.

The wall was built and code officers from Harveys Lake agreed the work was satisfactory and passed inspection, according to the police report. Brown also put a sewer frame, pipe and sewer grinder on the property, with all these materials paid for by Santayana, with invoices to prove the purchases.

According to the complaint, Santayana visited the site and found the wall to be in terrible condition and not meeting any requirement of the building plans.

The wall was revisited by a Harveys Lake code officer and determined not to meet any requirements, which meant that the wall needed to be taken down and rebuilt.

After the contract expired, Brown was removed as contractor of the project.

On Oct. 21, 2021, Santayana visited the property and spoke to Brown about the issues with the wall.

According to the police report, Brown became outraged and said "you wanna disappear, I can make you disappear. I'm afraid of what I'm capable of doing, is this how you make money, by sueing [sic] people."

Brown apologized to Santayana shortly after, and the two parties agreed to let their attorneys work something out.

From Oct. 21 to Nov. 19, 2021, Santayana witnessed Brown removing items from the property. At the time, according to the police report, Santayana didn't think the items were being stolen because he believed the items needed to be moved for Brown to continue working.

It was only after Brown walked away from the contract, Santayana told police, that he realized Brown wasn't bringing back the items he took.

In total, $25,000 of framing wood, seven pilings totaling $9,100, sewer casting totaling $4,000, a sewer grinding pump that cost $2,000, rebarb costing $6,000 and coating for the pilings costing $1,190 were all removed from the property, amounting to a grand total of $47,290.

The contract signed by both parties states that the contractor may not substitute materials without the written consent of the owner, and that any extra or oversupplied materials not needed to complete the job belong to the owner, unless prior written agreements were made.

On May 10 of this year, Santayana's attorney sent a letter to Brown demanding the return of the stolen items. Brown made no contact to Santayana by a requested date, May 24, at which point Santayana contacted the police, according to the criminal complaint.

Brown was arraigned in front of Magisterial District Judge Brian Tupper on Monday afternoon on the three felony charges against him.

Court records indicate that Brown was able to make bail set at $10,000.

A preliminary hearing in this case is scheduled for Sept. 1.