A St. Johnsbury man who is charged in several home improvement fraud cases was released by a Superior Court judge on Thursday after the state had sought to have him held without bail.
Ryan Kimball, 33, has five pending charges of fraud in Washington County and others in Essex and Caledonia counties, all stemming from episodes this year where homeowners complained he had taken money from them for work that was not completed.
Kimball had been ordered in earlier cases to stop soliciting home improvement contracts, but continued to do so this summer, according to Vermont State Police.
Washington County Deputy State’s Attorney Malachi Brennan said Thursday he hadn’t expected Judge Mary Morrissey to grant the state’s request to have Kimball held without bail. It’s unusual for any person who hasn’t been convicted of a crime to be held in that manner.
“The revocation of bail is really kind of an extreme consequence,” Brennan said after the hearing. “There are a lot of constitutional protections against it.”
Several people who hired Kimball to do work for him complained to police that he took deposits and then disappeared with their money. The number of incidents in a relatively short space of time — several just in 2019 — have garnered attention from law enforcement officials who say there is no effective means for stopping people who commit serial acts of home improvement fraud or for reimbursing people who lost money through such fraud.
Tina Desmarais, who signed a contract with Kimball July 15 to fix the roof of her East Montpelier home, has said he owes her more than $10,000. In late August, after appearing in court to answer fraud charges, Kimball texted her threatening messages in an attempt to get her to stop pursuing a legal remedy, and was charged in September with obstruction of justice.
Desmarais attended the hearing in Barre Thursday and left disappointed. She doesn’t believe she’ll ever get her money back.
“I’m pursuing this because I want him held accountable for what he did to me and has done to others and continues to do,” she said. “I want justice. I want him to do jail time, and I want him to regret ever meeting me. That’s my greatest hope.”
Kimball is scheduled to appear at the Superior Court again on Monday for a pre-trial conference. If the case does go to trial, and Kimball is convicted of the two misdemeanor and three felony home improvement charges against him, the law does allow for prison time, said Brennan.
Each felony count of home improvement fraud carries a maximum penalty of three years behind bars.
The state Attorney General’s Office monitors home improvement fraud cases through its consumer assistance program when cases are referred there by the police. Home improvement fraud was the fourth most common complaint that the state attorney general’s consumer complaint office received last year, said Charity Clark, chief of staff at the office. Consumers lost $299,000 in the 29 cases that were identified by the office as fraud, about $10,000 per case, she said.
The Consumer Complaint Program has several complaints dating back to 2016 involving Kimball.
Desmarais said she plans to attend Monday’s hearing and hopes she gets a chance to speak.
“One of the points I want to make to the court is had he been held after his first or second breach of conditions, he never would have had the opportunity to steal from me or several others,” she said. “I just want it on the record.”
