A Texas man is accused of stealing more than half a million dollars from prospective homeowners in Livingston Parish. His alleged victims say it appears he knew what he was doing because he targeted high-dollar properties and worked his way into their families.
Her 4700-square foot house is Shannon Johnson's dream home. Johnson says she hired Tim Lopez to build it. Lopez was friendly guy who came highly recommended. "He would come to dinner. He would stop by and hang out and drink a few beers and play basketball with our kids and play basketball with us. Just hang out and act like he was one of the family."
Johnson says after she paid Lopez about a third of the cost of this home, he stopped acting like family and when the house looked like an empty shell with just the outside completed, Johnson says Lopez stopped coming around. "He decided to do something else with the money because we were finding out through subs they were not being paid."
Johnson also says some of the work Lopez did was shoddy. Johnson says one of Lopez's men took a jackhammer to the foundation of her back porch. She showed us a shutter that is already pealing. Johnson says she had to hire other contractors to fix that and other problems, but she is not alone. Jason Ard with the Livingston Parish Sheriff's Office says there are other alleged victims. "One of them that I know of, it was a little over $140,000. Just one of the complainants alone out of the three."
Wednesday afternoon, agents from the Louisiana and Texas attorney general's offices arrested Lopez near Fort Worth, Texas. He's now charged with at least three counts of contract fraud. Johnson says she's hurt more by the breach of trust than the alleged crime. "We all have a dream and you just tried to take it away." Lopez waived extradition, so he'll be back in Livingston Parish soon. Aside from the charges in Livingston, the attorney general's office will charge Lopez with felony theft, misapplication of payments, and engaging in business of contracting without a license. Sheriff's spokesman Jason Ard says he expects other alleged victims to come forward after they read this story.


Source: WAFB, Avery Davidson