Ruling: Man must pay waterfront property owners
Robert David Marshall received a delayed sentencing ... after he was charged with seven larceny offenses, five felonies and two misdemeanors, for failing to perform promised work on four projects in Harrison Township and two in St. Clair Shores.
A man who builds and repairs seawalls was ordered to pay about $35,000 to four of six people who complained he failed to start or complete work on their barriers along the Lake St. Clair shoreline.
Robert David Marshall received a delayed sentencing last month in Macomb County Circuit Court after he was charged with seven larceny offenses, five felonies and two misdemeanors, for failing to perform promised work on four projects in Harrison Township and two in St. Clair Shores.
He will have to pay $35,100 in restitution to four victims by Oct. 13, 2021, to have the felonies reduced to misdemeanors and likely avoid jail time, according to the ruling by Judge James Maceroni.
Marshall and a company that assisted him eventually completed the work on two of the projects in Harrison Township and St. Clair Shores, and most of the work on one project in the township after complaints were filed three years ago.
Marshall, 56, of Roseville, pleaded guilty to the charges in August.
The bulk of the financial loss occurred to Carol Steyaert of Harrison Township, who not only lost the $21,500 she paid Marshall in late 2017 to complete the work, but this year paid another company $44,250 to perform the job that she won’t be able to recover.
The ongoing erosion of the seawall increased the cost of the project, Steyaert said at the Nov. 18 sentencing
At the hearing held remotely by Zoom, she accused Marshall of taking advantage of her “at a particularly vulnerable time in my life.” Her husband had died that year and she was undergoing chemotherapy treatments.
“I certainly did not need someone to come along and steal $21,500 from me,” she said. “Ultimately, he cost me considerably more. I can only hope he will reimburse the $21,500 to me and that he will never steal from others in the future. He had three years to play with my money and deserves to serve some serious prison time, as far as I am concerned, if I am not reimbursed.”
At the hearing Marshall promised to pay $1,000 that day and $1,000 the following week, and then could make payments. However, court records indicate he has made no payments.
Marshall has been working for the company that assisted him, and he has to repay the company a sum of money, according to his attorney, Glenn McCandlis, who said at the hearing the reason Marshall got behind on the projects was that he suffered a “massive heart attack.”
Maceroni sentenced Marshall to 38 days in jail, which was the amount of time he served, in five of the six cases. In one of the misdemeanor cases, he was given only one day of jail credit.