WINTER HAVEN – Despite her detective work that made the case for the Polk County Sheriff's Office's recent arrest of a Mulberry contractor on theft and fraud charges, Ruthie Kimmons of Lakeland turned down a suggestion at Wednesday’s news conference that she’d have a place in law enforcement.
“I don’t do guns, but if you want a social worker…,” said Kimmons, a social worker at Cornerstone Hospice & Palliative Care in Lake, Orange and Osceola counties, according to her Facebook page.
John Lee Johnson, 58, the owner of Tropic Pools of Central Florida Inc., faces felony counts of grand theft over $100,000, scheme to defraud over $50,000 and misappropriation of construction funds over $100,000.
Sheriff Grady Judd credited Kimmons with doing the initial investigation that led to the arrest, including finding local construction permits Tropic Pools had gotten in recent years and contacting the homeowners about their experiences with Johnson.
She did so because Kimmons and her husband, Reese Kimmons, were victims, Judd said.
In January 2017, the couple contracted with Johnson for a $32,000 pool, for which they paid him $9,600 until August, when construction work ceased and subcontractors filed two liens against their home after Johnson failed to pay them, according to a sheriff’s office statement. That prompted Kimmons’ investigation.
“It pretty much was just excuse after excuse” from Johnson, Kimmons told local media at the news conference. “Once that started happening, I thought to myself, ‘I can’t be the first person he’s done this to.’”
She talked to other Tropic Pools customers, who related similar experiences, she said.
Among them were Kevin and Tammy Knoth of Lakeland, who contracted for a $42,385 pool in April 2016 and paid Johnson $40,741 for a faultily constructed pool, the Sheriff’s Office statement said. The pool was for Tammy Knoth, who is under treatment for advanced cancer and wanted the pool for therapeutic exercise.
The couple also paid an additional $7,434 to subcontractors to avoid liens against their home, according to the statement, and Johnson eventually stopped returning their calls after offering many excuses for the delays.
“It’s frustrating knowing that this pool is something that could help my wife strengthen and hopefully help her conquer this lifelong battle that cancer has put us into,” Knoth said at the news conference. “It’s frustrating that we’re stuck in this drain of going nowhere.”
Sheriff’s detectives have identified seven victims of “an ongoing systematic course of criminal conduct with the intent to defraud” between April 2016 and August 2017, the sheriff statement said. They also found several subcontractors who were not paid.
“Johnson attempted to gain $292,922, and managed to unlawfully garner $253,283,” the statement alleges.
The investigation continues, Judd said.
“We believe there are a lot of other victims we haven’t heard from, and our detectives are eager to hear from them,” he said.
Johnson holds a state contractor’s license and has operated his company on-and-off since 2007, Judd said. He has no prior criminal history.
“We don’t know if he (ever) ran a legitimate business,” the sheriff said.
After receiving many complaints about Tropic Pools and Johnson, the Polk County Building Division last year suspended his license to work in the county, Judd said.
Anyone with information on Tropic Pools or its customers can call the Sheriff’s Office tip line, 800-226-8477, or its website, http://www.heartlandcrimestoppers.com. The tipster can remain anonymous.
The Sheriff’s Office statement identified other alleged victims of Tropic Pools:
• Thang Nguyen of Lakeland, who contracted for $10,350 and paid $5,700. An unpaid subcontractor placed a lien placed on Nguyen's home.
• Arthur Fulmer Jr. of Lakeland, who contracted for $50,600 and paid the entire amount. The Polk Building Division subsequently informed him he has an “unusable, illegal pool.”
• Amy Dunnahoe of Lakeland, who contracted for $53,400 and paid $42,700 on a pool for her late mother, who also was battling cancer. One unpaid subcontractor placed a lien on her home, and she paid other companies to avoid more liens.
“I can’t have compassion for someone (Johnson) like this that I put my trust into and that took away my mother-in-law’s dream,” her husband, Christ Dunnahoe, said at the news conference. “I was her caretaker for a year and a half, and she was not able to enjoy this pool, not for one minute.”
• John Chu of Dover, who contracted for a $51,325 pool and paid $43,626. The pool has sat unfinished since June 2017.
• Humberto Jimenez, a subcontractor and owner of Jimenez Quality Pools in Mulberry. Johnson owes Jimenez $52,862 for 32 jobs since April 2016.
While she disdained a job as a detective, Ruthie Kimmons did a pretty fair Dirty Harry take – “You've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well do ya, punk?” – when asked what she would say to Johnson if she encounters him again.
"I hope you remember my face and my name," Kimmons said. “That’s my home. That’s my safe place, and you came into my home, and you stole from me."
Kevin Bouffard can be reached at kevin.bouffard@theledger.com or at 863-401-6980.