Sanders pleads 'true' to probation violation after OWI arrest
Dec. 27—A Kokomo man who avoided jail time after pleading guilty to defrauding older adults is now facing possible time behind bars after violating his probation.
Dennis Sanders, 63, pleaded "true" Tuesday in Howard County Superior Court I to violating his terms of probation.
Sanders was arrested on Dec. 1 and charged with operating a vehicle with alcohol concentration equivalent to 0.15 or more and operating a vehicle while intoxicated endangering a person, both misdemeanors.
According to a probable cause affidavit filed by deputy Joshua Myers of the Howard County Sheriff's Department, Myers was dispatched at 3:18 p.m. Dec. 1 to the county roads surrounding the Kokomo Municipal Airport for a single-vehicle accident with injury.
When Myers arrived on scene, he saw a Jeep Cherokee flipped and partially resting on top of a barbed-wire fence that covers the perimeter of the airport. Sanders was inside the SUV.
According to the affidavit, Sanders was "disoriented," slurring his speech and "struggled to form sentences." Myers also smelled a "strong smell of alcohol" emitting from the vehicle and "several" open containers in "plain view."
When Myers offered a breathalyzer test, Sanders told the deputy, "I know what you white people try to do," according to the affidavit. Myers took that as Sanders refusing to take the breathalyzer test.
A warrant for a blood draw was requested and granted by Howard County Superior Court IV Hans Pate. The test results showed Sanders had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.226, nearly three times the legal limit.
On Dec. 6, a petition to revoke Sanders' probation was filed.
Sanders initially pleaded "not true" to the allegation he violated his probation but reversed his plea to "true" Tuesday. He's being held in the Howard County Jail without bond.
In May, Sanders pleaded guilty to home improvement fraud and corrupt business influence, both Level 5 felonies. According to court documents, Sanders operated a home improvement fraud scheme for years, targeting mostly those over the age of 70 years old.
Sanders' victims would call him after seeing his advertisement in the newspaper or phone book. He would talk them into repairs they didn't need and get clients to pay him most of the money up front. Then Sanders wouldn't do the work, according to the affidavits.
Seven of the eight victims in the affidavits were over 70 years old.
In one case, a 75-year-old veteran with cancer told police he called Sanders after seeing his advertisement and wrote Sanders two checks totaling $2,400 to fix his shed. Sanders never started the work, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Another woman told investigators she paid Sanders $3,200 to make minor repairs around her house. She said Sanders ended up bringing two men from the Kokomo Rescue Mission to do some of the work, and then left them at her residence all evening.
The woman said the two men were "stranded at her house and she fed them dinner ... Dennis finally showed up at her residence late that night to pick them up," according to the affidavit.
He was sentenced in May to 12 years of supervised probation, with over one year of that suspended for time served in jail while awaiting trial. At a later restitution hearing, he was ordered to pay $88,920 to 12 individual victims, as well as two sets of couples.
Sanders is also facing similar home improvement fraud charges in Miami County. Police say he scammed three victims in Miami County out of a total of $14,000. That case is still in litigation.
His plea and sentencing meant Sanders could avoid further time in jail as long as he didn't violate his probation. Now, though, Sanders could be ordered by the judge to serve his sentence in jail.
His sentencing hearing is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Jan. 24.
Tyler Juranovich can be reached at 765-454-8577, by email at tyler.juranovich@kokomotribune.com or on Twitter at @tylerjuranovich.
