Hall of Shame bad contractor faces judge on charges

FOX 2 - Look who's getting ready for court, it's Artimus Brintley - a Hall of Shame inductee and now defendant.

Artimus is being charged as a habitual offender for taking money under false pretenses in Judge Ronald Giles' Detroit courtroom.  

If convicted, he could go to prison for 15 years.

The backstory:

And it's for the exact stuff Rob Wolchek reported about last May.

Wolchek busted Artimus while bidding a contractor's job. But you'd sure think Artimus was a contractor.

He drove around in a van that said his company was licensed and insured. His website said he was licensed and insured - but guess what?

Rob Wolchek: "Are you a licensed contractor?"

Artimus: "No."

Jodi told FOX 2 that she thought he was a liar - adding that she found out the hard way.

She and her husband hired Artimus to fix up a couple of their investment properties - but from the start it was a disaster.

One guy that Artimus told Jodi 'he hired' to help work on her house, actually stole her appliances.

Artimus was good at playing the victim, because he went on Channel 7 and told a sad story about how he lost his tools in the burglary.  

He started a GoFundMe page and managed to get thousands in donations - even though Jodi was the one who had to replace all her appliances.

Next, Jodi says Artimus started a fire.

"He left a heat gun plugged in and it was sitting on top of paint cans and next to paint thinner, on top of a bag of shims which is dry wood, and paint rags and it caught fire," she said.

Related: Customer forced to pay for contractor's lies

After the fire, Jodi's new countertops and floors were ruined.

Wolchek: "You're thinking he's insured, he's going to pay for this - and you found out ...."

"We have no recourse," Jodi said.

Jodi's insurance company found out it was all a lie and that Artimus wasn't insured. Artimus wasn't a licensed builder - in fact, Artimus wasn't even his first name.

He's really Tyrone Artimus Brintley and he's a felon convicted of a gun offense.

Artimus - AKA Tyrone -  blocked Jodi's phone, disappeared and never finished her job. But he kept on taking on new construction jobs and that's when Wolchek busted him.

Artimus told denied starting the fire says it was one of his subcontractors. But admits he told Jodi and her husband he's licensed and insured, and isn't. 
       
Wolchek: "Don't you think that's misleading?"

"No."

It was a weird answer to something that sure seems like a lie, but he did promise to give Jodi her money back.

Unfortunately he never did - which brings us to a preliminary examination in 36th District Court in Detroit.

Artimus doesn't say a thing, but Jodi does on the witness stand.

"He told us he was licensed and insured," she said.

And Wolchek's Hall of Shame story is part of the case by Assistant Prosecutor Steven Kaplan.

Kaplan: "What if anything did the defendant, Mr. Brintley, say to Rob Wolchek about the status of his work whether he was licensed and insured?"

"He said he was not licensed," Jodi said.

Tyrone Artimus Brintley's defense attorney, Kiana Franulick, just seemed to make things worse by bringing up other jobs.

"Let me make this as clear as I can make it, you have now opened the door for another charge," said Judge Ronald Giles.

"Your honor, I'm just breaking down the receipts," said Franulick.

"I'm just making a statement counselor," Giles said. "You can do what you want with it, but you're opening the door for another charge."

Kaplan closed his argument with this: "Then they met the contractor from hell here who said, 'Oh I'm licensed, I'm great, I'm insured.' He had no intention of doing that work, judge."

With that, the judge rules there was sufficient evidence to move the case along to circuit court.  Tyrone Artimus Brintley has pleaded not guilty and will be arraigned in the higher court for false pretenses later this month.