Add criminal charges to the civil complaint arising from alleged construction fraud.
Martin Peele, an employee at Majestic Roofing and Buildings, faces a misdemeanor charge of failure to work after paid in Lenoir County, and a felony charge of obtaining property under false pretense in Duplin County.
Wednesday, Jimmy Williams — a former customer of Majestic — took his case to Lenoir County District Court. According to Williams, Peele, charged with the misdemeanor of failure to work after paid, asked for a continuance. The case goes back in front of a judge May 2.
Williams said he’s out $1,968 for work that was never completed.
“I go outside the courtroom, and he’s standing outside waiting for me, and talking about he’s going to pay my money back,” Williams said. “And I said, ‘Dude, if you were going to pay my money back you would have given it back to me.’ Then he keeps blaming it on this Otis guy.”
Anne and Rodrick Moore, who won a civil judgment against Majestic in January, believe Otis Simmons to be the owner of the company. He’s the company principal according to the Better Business Bureau and the registered contact for Majestic’s website.
And according to the church’s website, Simmons is a pastor at Whosoever Will Church of Christ-Disciples of Christ on U.S. 258 North. Phone numbers listed for the church have been disconnected, and no one was at the location when The Free Press stopped by Thursday afternoon.
Rodrick Moore got in touch with Simmons two weeks ago.
“He called me, and said, ‘Mr. Moore, I’m going to send you your money, if you’ll work with me. I’m going to send you your money in two weeks,’ ” Moore said. “He said he was sorry things worked out like they did, but he didn’t know anything about it.”
Two weeks passed, and Moore didn’t hear back. Calls went unanswered.
“He sent a letter out here — it wasn’t a threatening letter — it was a letter that somebody made up like, ‘You can’t call me because I owe you money. You’re not supposed to collect that money,’ ” Moore said. “It was just a bunch of junk.”
The Moores, who are out $2,658.75 for a building that was not completed, took the letter to their lawyer, who laughed at it, Moore said.
Wednesday, Moore called Simmons and left him a message, saying, “You’re even deeper in it than he was,” referring to Peele.
Peele has a criminal history in Randolph County of taking money for constructions projects that were never finished, earning him a five-year suspended sentence in 2011.
Through another construction company, a Duplin man who claimed he was wronged by Majestic contacted Williams and said he’d been taken for $3,200. That complaint resulted in a felony charge for Peele, who is due in court June 14 in Duplin County.
For his part, Peele said unhappy customers should take up their problem with someone higher up in the organization than him.
“No. 1, I am not the owner of Majestic Roofing, I was not an officer with Majestic Roofing, I work for Majestic Roofing, and that’s it,” Peele said. “And so, you would need to talk to someone with Majestic Roofing about that situation.”
Peele said he didn’t have a phone number for Simmons.
Moore gave The Free Press a contact number, and a message was left on Simmons’ voicemail to return the call, which did not happen as of press time.
Wes Wolfe can be reached at 252-559-1075 or wes.wolfe@kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter @WolfeReports.
Outstanding charges against Marvin Peele:
- Lenoir: Misdemeanor failure to work after paid
- Duplin: Felony obtaining property under false pretense
Outstanding charges against Otis Simmons:
- None