In settling the estate, her sister came to think Katie Barr was bilked out of thousands before dying.
By STEVE THOMPSON
Published September 19, 2004
Katie Barr had never met Donald Hughes, but his voice on the telephone sounded earnest enough. So, two years ago, the elderly woman sent him $159,000.
In return, Hughes, 38, promised to help her invest in real estate. He would buy two houses for her that she could then put up for rent.
Hughes did not mention he was on probation for exploiting the elderly.
Barr was a high-heel wearing, Cadillac-driving, bodacious old lady, who refused to act her age. But she finally succumbed to cancer on Aug. 2, at 81.
She left everything to her sister, Shirley Harkins, who came to New Port Richey last month from West Virginia to settle the estate.
Harkins, 60, says Hughes may have taken advantage of her sister. Barr was suffering from early stages of Alzheimer's, Harkins says, which runs in their family.
She is considering a lawsuit against Hughes and has filed a complaint with the Sheriff's Office, which is investigating.
Hughes says that he was Barr's friend and that her mind was sharp to her death.
"I would never steal from Katie," he said.
* * *
Katie Barr always dressed impeccably. Her earrings matched her eye shadow, which matched her hat, which matched her suit.
"She wore these hats that always had flowers or scarves on them," her sister said. "She was beautiful."
She wasn't always easy to get along with. "Overbearing," Harkins said. And during the past couple of years, she said, Barr's mind had begun to slip away.
In 2002, before she met Hughes and months before she moved here from Virginia, Barr bought a home in Port Richey and one in New Port Richey with the help of a friend, a Dunedin real estate agent.
Barr arranged to move into one of the homes, and she put the other up for rent.
It was while looking for a house to rent that Hughes says he first got in touch with Barr.
"I seen a "for rent' sign and a phone number, and I called it," he said.
He and Barr talked, Hughes said, and during several more calls he agreed he would help her with her real estate investments.
Barr sent Hughes $159,000. Hughes, in turn, was to buy her two houses and add a room to each. Barr would then rent out the two homes.
Harkin and Hughes dispute the details of what followed, but tax and deed records provide the basic facts:
Hughes bought one house for $59,000 and put it in the name of "Kady Barr." He has not added a room to it.
He also bought another home for $60,000, to which he did add a room. But he took out a $56,800 mortgage on it. And it is still in his name.
Hughes says he took out the mortgage because the money Barr sent him was not enough to buy the homes, put on the additions and pay for the other work he did for her.
Yet official records show only the $119,000 Hughes paid for the two houses. Hughes put a room addition on one house, which he valued at $12,000, and says he did another $10,000 worth of work for Barr. That still totals only $141,000.
Thus, from Barr's investment of $159,000, her estate is left with just the house Hughes bought for $59,000 (which currently has an assessed value of $65,268). The other house remains in Hughes' name and is encumbered by a large mortgage.
Hughes says he intended to put the second property in Barr's name, but she dragged her feet and never took over the mortgage.
"That's been the whole problem," Hughes said. "Katie was going to take the mortgage over on the house . . . but she never did, she said when she gets around to it, she'll do it."
Harkins says that she, like her sister, is not going to take over a mortgage on a home for which her sister already paid. Harkins says that in addition to the money her sister lost on the homes, her sister loaned Hughes $10,000 to buy a truck and $8,000 to buy two personal water craft.
Harkins says the loans were never repaid. Hughes says they were.
* * *
Donald Hughes' criminal history in Florida dates back to a 1986 arrest for driving with a suspended license. In 1988, he pleaded no contest to a charge of petty theft.
In 1998, Hughes pleaded no contest to a charge of making harassing telephone calls. The victim said Hughes called him 24 times within a four-day period after he refused to pay Hughes for improperly done construction work.
"When I get through with you, they're going to have to take you to the hospital," Hughes told the man, according to official records. He later told deputies he had no intention of carrying out the threat. A judge sentenced him to probation.
In February 1999, Hughes was arrested after two elderly Pasco County residents accused him of defrauding them months earlier in separate incidents.
An 84-year-old woman told sheriff's detectives she paid Hughes $2,961 for cabinet work in her home. The next day she paid him $1,317 for pressure cleaning. Two days later she paid him $6,803 to replace an interior wall. Five days later, she loaned him $21,000. Hughes never did the work and never repaid the loan, a sheriff's report said.
Hughes pleaded guilty to charges of exploitation of the elderly and scheme to defraud. He was sentenced to 10 years probation and ordered to pay the woman restitution.
In the second case, a 74-year-old man told detectives he paid Hughes $17,380 to build an addition onto his home.
"He shoveled a little dirt around, all I can see that he done," the man said later in court.
Hughes pleaded no contest in that case to falsely holding himself out as a contractor. He was sentenced to a year's probation and ordered to pay restitution.
Hughes says he never defrauded anyone.
"I didn't have a good lawyer, and I didn't know what was going on," he said of the cases.
"I am not a defrauder of the old people by far," he said. "I have respect for old people, and I'm all the time doing stuff for old people."
While on probation, Hughes was arrested several more times. In one instance, he was accused of hitting a man in the face with a billiard ball during a barroom scuffle. In another, he was accused of punching his girlfriend in the mouth and throwing her to the ground at their home. Both charges were dropped.
Hughes violated his probation in 2002 when he failed a drug test and admitted to smoking marijuana. His probation was amended to drug offender probation, which meant he was more closely supervised.
In 2003, about a year after Barr sent him her money, Hughes asked a judge to end his probation early. Papers his attorney filed noted Hughes had paid his restitution ahead of schedule.
The request was granted, and Hughes' probation ended on Sept. 22, 2003.
"I paid back exactly what I owed," he told the Times. "And it was in no secrecy."
* * *
In the 1940s, Katie Barr modeled dresses and hats for places like Hecht's, Woodies and Garfinckel's near Washington, D.C.
She and her husband of 22 years separated in 1977, after doctors predicted she would be severely brain damaged from a car crash. They never divorced.
Barr recovered from the crash, but she was poor and on her own. She and her husband had not had children.
For more than 20 years after that, Barr ran a kennel on the 28-acre farm in Centerville, Va., where she and her husband had lived.
When her husband died in the late 1990s, Barr inherited the farm, sold it for $625,000 and decided to move to Florida.
Barr spent much of her time tending to her yard in New Port Richey and caring for her pets, including three dogs, Pretty Girl, Holiday and Bird. She also made regular rounds feeding stray cats and other animals near trash bins and in restaurant parking lots.
Harkins says that during the past few years, her sister's mind had begun to falter. Two of Barr's neighbors had the same impression.
Barr repeatedly complained that the woman next-door, Barbara Campbell, neglected her horse. Barr even called the Sheriff's Office.
"One time she said my horse was dehydrated, lying out in the back field, dying," Campbell said. The Sheriff's Office determined the complaint unfounded.
Denise Smith, a friend of Barr's who lives nearby, also said the horse was fine.
"She said the poor thing is starving and it's this and it's that," Smith said. "I said, Ms. Katie, it looks good, and she said, "That's because I called on her and she fixed it up.' "
Smith said a few months ago, Barr called her and said she had forgotten to eat for several days. She asked Smith if she happened to have something to eat, a hamburger?
"I said, Of course I do, I'll bring something right over," Smith said. "Katie said, No, no, I'm on my way out. I'll come by and pick it up."
Another evening, Smith stopped by Barr's house and found Barr sitting on her back patio thinking it was morning.
"She was waiting for the sun to come up," Smith said, "and, meanwhile, it was getting dark."
* * *
Hughes disputes Harkins' claim that her sister suffered from dementia before her death. He says greed fuels Harkins' allegations against him.
"No one ever finagled Katie or tricked Katie," he said. "She was a very smart lady, and she was very giving, and she was very rich. And if she didn't like you, you didn't get very much."
When Harkins came to New Port Richey last month, she planned to meet with Hughes, then changed her mind. Instead, she called the Sheriff's Office. Hughes soon got a call from a detective.
"She went straight to a detective and tried telling the detective that I'm stealing from Katie or I haven't switched this house over to Katie's name and all that stuff," Hughes said. "But she didn't know the whole story because she didn't have any documents in her hand to read and see what it was all about."
The Sheriff's Office would only confirm that the case is being investigated.
Harkins returned to West Virginia last month before she settled her sister's estate.
She doesn't think Hughes will make good on the money she says he owes her sister.
"He's a smooth operator, and he thought he was going to hook me into the same deal," Harkins said. "If he never paid Katie, he'll never pay me."
Steve Thompson can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6245, or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6245. His e-mail address is sthompson@sptimes.com
