Spineless Prosecutor Kiboshes Cop's Arrest Warrant Request For Developer Suspected Of Pocketing Customer's Cash, Then Misapplying Funds For Personal Use

In Indian River County, Florida, TC Palm reports:

• Denise Cisneros is hopeful she will finally get the swimming pool a developer promised her a year ago.
  
  Recently, she walked alongside her unfinished swimming pool, her face pinched in frustration as she glanced into the concrete crater with trash strewed across dried scum at the bottom. The giant, dry hole was in contrast to her lush lawn and newly built, 3,200-square-foot home in Eagle Trace subdivision, north of Vero Beach city limits.

***

• For almost a year she and her husband wrangled with developer Eli Baron, who built their house at Eagle Trace and, according to Cisneros, pressured them into paying him $43,000 to install a pool he was supposed to have completed by last June.
  
  The project stalled because Baron owed almost $6,000 to the pool contractor and $12,000 to the company that built the screen enclosure around the pool. Upset by the delays, Cisneros reported Baron to the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office last year.

***

• In November 2011, a Press Journal investigation found Baron had a troubled financial history, a criminal record and a long list of contractors who claimed he failed to pay them.
  
  A year later, the Press Journal learned he has mounting unpaid taxes, owes more than $140,000 in court settlements and has had 146 liens filed against him in the past three years. He also has unhappy homeowners in the subdivision at 58th Avenue and 61st Street.

***

• Arrest warrant denied
  
  Cisneros filed a complaint with the Sheriff’s Office in August, arguing Baron taking her money and not using it to finish the job amounted to theft.
  
  Through subpoenaed bank records, detectives found Baron withdrew money from a business account that was supposed to cover costs such as pool construction and instead spent it on a Caribbean cruise, hotels, $1,000 monthly BMW car payments and restaurants with tabs as high as $175, a warrant affidavit shows.
  
  Milo Thornton, a detective with the economic crimes unit, stated in a report that he also talked to the contractors involved. In September, he requested a warrant to arrest Baron and charge him with grand theft, but the State Attorney’s Office quashed the warrant saying Baron’s actions didn’t meet the standard for theft under Florida law.
  
  Nikki Robinson, assistant state attorney, said her office denied the warrant on Sept. 20 because Baron did most of the work he promised and showed he intended to finish the job.
  
  Plus, Cisneros kept paying him, which suggests she believed he would complete the work, Robinson said. By law, a person must display criminal intent at the outset — otherwise, the main recourse is litigation, she said.
  
  “Did she pick a bad contractor? Absolutely,” Robinson said. “But is it criminal? Unfortunately, no.”(1)

For more, see Some residents, contractors unhappy with Eagle Trace developer.

(1) In addition to grand theft, the described conduct by the developer could possibly also constitute a misapplication of construction funds, a second-degree felony in Florida (Section 713.345 F.S.) for ripoffs of at least $1,000 but less than $100,000. Further, under Section 713.345(1)(c) of the Florida statute:

• A permissive inference that a person knowingly and intentionally misapplied construction funds in violation of this subsection is created when a valid lien has been recorded against the property of an owner for labor, services, or materials; the person who ordered the labor, services, or materials has received sufficient funds to pay for such labor, services, or materials; and the person has failed, for a period of at least 45 days from receipt of the funds, to remit sufficient funds to pay for such labor, services, or materials, except for funds withheld pursuant to paragraph (a).

Thumbs up to the detective who requested the arrest warrant; a Bronx cheer for the prosecutor who, in all fairness, may have such a heavy caseload that she didn't feel that the developer's actions, even if rising to the level of a crime and despite his reported track record as a creditor-stiffing businessman, wasn't a big enough deal to merit criminal prosecution. Hence the always-handy fall-back position not-uncommonly invoked by some unmotivated law enforcement personnel - 'No criminal conduct here - It's only a civil matter!'