Builder Charged With Felonies in Unfinished Work

As Scoey Mitchlll recalls the decision to set up a “sting” to trap the contractor who had taken his money, it was a case of giving Joe Zurita a dollop of his own medicine--along with a healthy dose of justice.

Mitchlll, a television producer and former actor, said Zurita had bilked him out of $2,500. He’d advanced the Reseda contractor a third of the $7,500 price tag for building a concrete wall around the new spa at Mitchlll’s Glendale home. Then, for weeks, he’d been unable to get Zurita to complete the job, or even return his calls.

Finally, Mitchlll had another man, Tom Ellis, lure Zurita to an Eagle Rock home for an estimate on a bogus job. As prearranged, Mitchlll appeared and demanded his $2,500. Zurita pleaded that he was having personal problems. But Mitchlll was weary of excuses. He roped Zurita’s feet together and hitched him to a “No Parking” sign and called the police.

It was while waiting for police, Mitchlll recalled, that he stumbled onto evidence that there may have been a pattern of crime extending far beyond his own bad experience.

As he tells it, a strong wind blew some papers off a clipboard that Zurita carried. One was an estimate for another customer. They immediately called the customer, he said, asked about the contractor, and were told: “Oh, my God. We’ve been looking for him.”

They then searched the rest of Zurita’s papers and found a list of names. Glendale police say it led them to as many as 21 fraud victims.

“If he’d done all those jobs, he’d have a hell of a business going,” Mitchlll concluded.

The unusual citizen’s arrest was March 13. It prompted a six-week investigation by the state Contractors License Board that culminated Thursday in the filing of eight felony counts against Zurita by the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

Five counts are for grand theft; the others allege that he illegally used another contractor’s license number. Each count carries a maximum three-year prison sentence.

The charges stem from five contracting jobs, but Glendale police and the contracting board’s San Gabriel Valley office, which have also been investigating complaints against Zurita, said Thursday that more charges may be filed in the next two weeks.

The board previously assessed civil fines against Zurita, ordering him on April 3 to pay $7,500 on three counts of contracting without a license. State law requires an individual to be licensed for home improvement work exceeding $300.

Zurita could not be reached for comment. But Glendale Police Detective David O’Connor, who spoke to Zurita about the allegedly incomplete contracting jobs in March, said Zurita tried to rebut each customer’s complaints. “He’s got explanations for every one of these,” the detective said.

Mitchlll’s action led to additional--and very immediate--problems for the contractor. Upon his arrest, police discovered several traffic warrants against Zurita. He is serving a 394-day sentence at the medium-security wing of Peter J. Pitchess Honor Rancho in Saugus for two drunk-driving convictions. He also pleaded no contest to a hit-and-run charge April 15 and was sentenced to 147 days in jail.

In its last fiscal year, the state board that oversees California’s 200,000 licensed contractors, and also reviews reports of unlicensed contracting, issued 1,788 civil citations for contracting without a license and 957 for violations of the state contracting law by licensed contractors. Forty-one licenses were suspended and 302 revoked.

The Zurita case is unusual, board officials say, on several counts: the way he was apprehended, the large number of complaints and the bringing of felony charges.

Although it may be apparent that a contractor didn’t complete a job, authorities say it is difficult to support criminal charges because prosecutors must show a pattern or other circumstances that prove a contractor intended to defraud the consumer. When criminal charges are brought against a contractor, they are usually misdemeanors.

Mitchlll and six other Zurita customers interviewed in recent weeks speak with anger, but also a hint of admiration, about the contractor, whom most of them found through his ads in PennySaver publications.

Knowledgeable, Eager

They recall him as a short, solidly built and ingratiating 33-year-old who appeared knowledgeable about contracting arcana and eager for work. Attired in jeans, T-shirt, and work boots, the proprietor of Joe’s Pools and Spas called prospective customers “buddy” and offered to start work immediately because “things are slow.”

Mitchlll, whose account of his “sting” is recorded in Glendale police records, shakes his head at Zurita’s chutzpah . The former actor said the contractor was at his Glendale home when new kitchen cabinets were delivered without the proper finish. He said Zurita told him: “I don’t know how these guys stay in business. You try to make a living and you’ve got to service customers.”

The customers say Zurita combined such a personable approach with low bids for home improvements such as a wall, driveway or pool.

“He tried to give you the feeling of ‘no problem,’ ” said Michael C. Froelich of Glendale, who had previously overseen the construction of his Glendale home and says he gave Zurita $1,000 toward construction of a concrete wall. “He said, ‘Everything’s fine. This job will really go fast. We’re anxious to get going and this job will be done in no time.’ ”

50% Down Payment

The contractors board says the complaints against Zurita allege the same modus operandi after he found a customer: he requested as much as 50% of the price in advance, performed “token manual labor,” and then didn’t finish the job, said Cy Kelly, senior deputy investigator in the board’s Van Nuys office.

“In not one of them has he done any substantial work on the project,” Kelly said. State law prohibits a contractor from taking a down payment that exceeds 10% of the price of a home improvement job or $1,000, whichever is less.

Although some of Zurita’s purported victims are ill and elderly, the list also includes the affluent and sophisticated. A developer and a former Michigan assistant district attorney each sheepishly said they’d fallen prey to the Reseda man.

“At least I was done by a pro,” said Joe Freeman, a Sepulveda developer who says he advanced Zurita $700 last December to build an addition on his home. “That takes some of the sting out of it.”

Freeman was one of seven San Fernando and San Gabriel valley residents who said in interviews that they had agreed to Zurita’s request for a down payment of at least 20% of the job’s price, double the legal limit. Six said Zurita began the work and then refused to finish the jobs. Freeman said no work was done at his home.

Threats Against Customer

“He told me if I call him or come to his house one more time he’s going to kill me,” said Ben Farahan of Northridge, who says he saw a $2,000 deposit for a new pool go down the drain. “I didn’t take him seriously but my wife was very upset.”

The seven customers say they gave Zurita between $700 and $2,500 as down payments for jobs in the past five months. The total for those customers was $9,900. Several said Zurita cashed their check within hours.

Sometimes it looked like the work might go equally quickly, they said.

Generally, Zurita would show up the next day with one or two Spanish-speaking workers who would dig a ditch for a wall or tear up an old driveway, the customers said. But sometimes he did not return to pick up the workers at the end of the day.

Mitchlll said he awoke one morning to find a worker “had slept behind my dumpster.” Another worker later appeared at his door to say he hadn’t been paid by Zurita, he said.

Other customers said they ended up feeding Zurita’s workers and driving them home.

However, there are no complaints about unpaid wages against Zurita or his company at the state Labor Department office in Van Nuys, department Deputy Commissioner William Fontana said.

Drove Worker to Zurita

Carol Steadler, a retired attorney and former assistant district attorney who says she gave Zurita $1,800 toward a concrete driveway for her La Canada home, recalled that she drove one of the laborers to Zurita’s Reseda home, which doubled as his office. The next day, she said, Zurita scolded her: “What do you mean leaving that worker at my home? That’s my private place.”

Other customers said that, when they confronted Zurita personally or on the phone, he made excuses and promised to complete the work.

“He said his mother had died and he had to go to Mexico to arrange the funeral,” Farahan said.

“He said he’d been in jail for traffic warrants,” Mitchlll said.

“He said his wife was leaving him and he was going to lose his little girl,” said Arnold Woodhead, a retired cabinet manufacturer who says he gave Zurita $1,000 last November to retile and replaster the pool at his Encino home.

Froelich and Herbert Korth of Arleta said they took Zurita to small claims court, won judgments but couldn’t collect.

Six of the customers said they subsequently hired other contractors to complete the work. Farahan said he abandoned his plans to build a swimming pool when other bids were double Zurita’s.

Difficult to Prove

Some customers said they had tried to regain their money, or least prevent Zurita from continuing to operate, by reporting him to the police. But Farahan and Steadler said police told them that there was nothing authorities could do because it is so difficult to prove criminal fraud.

License board officials say the customers might have avoided their travails if they had checked with the state board about the license number Zurita put on contracts with them. He was using the number of CAPCON Construction Co., a San Diego County contractor, without CAPCON’s knowledge, according to Jim Cappadocia, a partner in the firm.

Few of Zurita’s customers said they had asked for references of recent work, and none contacted as many as three references, the minimum number recommended by the board.

Instead, they were left enraged.

“I debated beating him to death, but I decided for $700 it wasn’t worth the felony charge,” the 43-year-old Freeman said. “Besides, I figured someone else would do it to him sooner or later.”

The 57-year-old Mitchlll said that he decided to take matters into his own hands after he did check Zurita’s listed license number with the state.

Thinking About Loss

“I was lying in bed one night and I said to my wife, ‘This guy just took $2,500 of mine. Does he think I’m not going to do anything?’ ” said the former regular on such television shows as “Barefoot in the Park,” “Rhoda” and “What’s It All About, World?”

Mitchlll, who is president of Glendale-based MMC Productions Inc., returned to Spa World in Glendale, where he had purchased his spa. Unlike other Zurita customers, he said, he had been approached by the contractor, who told him Spa World had suggested the call. But Mitchlll said employees there maintained that they didn’t know Zurita.

Tom Ellis, an occasional Spa World employee, was in the store at the time. He and Mitchlll got to talking, and concocted the scheme to confront Zurita. The plan was for Ellis to call Zurita, saying he wanted an estimate on a new wall for his house.

When Zurita arrived at the house later that week, Ellis recorded his conversation with the unlicensed contractor with the unfinished jobs. The five-minute tape includes the following exchange:

Ellis: How long will it take you to get this done?

Zurita: Oh, a couple, two, three days.

Ellis: How much up-front money do you need?

Zurita: At least half the money for materials. And the balance when it’s finished.

Ellis: Uh huh.

Zurita: Right away we can jump on it. I can even start today. . . .

Ellis: You have no work at all?

Zurita: Zero. Not even one clean out. I mean not even one little repair. . . .

Ellis: You’re kidding me.

Zurita: I’m hurting, buddy.

Ellis: And you’re Joe Zurita?

Zurita: I’m Joe Zurita.