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Owner of Coral Bay Construction surrenders

The builder is accused of defrauding customers.

By JONATHAN ABEL
Published November 15, 2006

BROOKSVILLE - This spring, Steve Bartlett was up to his eyeballs building houses.

But on Monday, the president of now-bankrupt Coral Bay Construction Inc. turned himself in at the Hernando County Jail.

The transition from building boom to criminal bust played out rapidly and involved hundreds of victims in Hernando, Pasco, Citrus and Sumter counties. At one point, Bartlett was building as many as 170 homes and garages in Hernando alone.

Rising costs and mismanagement caught up to him, however, and in May he filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

A criminal investigation began soon after, ending up in one charge of grand theft of $100,000 or more.

At a news conference Monday, prosecutor Phil Hanson didn't want to talk about the specifics of the case, which involves 138 houses, eight garages and 10,000 to 15,000 pages of records.

The basic problem, he said, is that Bartlett was using one customer's deposit to cover the expenses of building another customer's house. Add to that the accusation that Bartlett was using business funds to buy motorcycles, take out personal credit cards and write checks "willy-nilly," and you have got the makings of a criminal case.

"I want to see that business funds weren't commingled with personal funds," Hanson said in explaining how the State Attorney's Office decided to bring criminal charges instead of just sending it to a civil court. "If the builder is not making a profit and is taking personal money out of the account, in essence what the builder is doing is spending customers' deposits."

In all, $1-million was misused, said Hanson and Hernando detective Harold Varvel, who spent 750 hours working full time on the case.

"A lot of the stories are the same," Varvel said. "We paid a lot of money and didn't get what we contracted for."

The maximum penalty Bartlett faces is 30 years in prison, but Hanson, the prosecutor, said it was "too early to tell" whether Bartlett deserved prison time.

Former customers, many of whom were left without their promised homes, were pleased to hear of his arrest.

"We're happy about that," said Anna Martino, whose son lost $72,000. "He deserved what he's getting, I tell you. He hurt so many people he shouldn't get away with that. I'm glad that they finally did something."

"I don't like the word 'revenge,' " said Ann Marie Galea, 60, another unsatisfied customer. But she does want Bartlett to get a "severe" penalty. "If you can't do the time, don't do the crime," she said.

Some were more forgiving.

"He's not really a bad guy. He's just a bad businessman," said Ken Jardine, 63, who lost $60,000. "They're saying he may have siphoned some of the money out. That is wrong. If that is wrong, he will pay for it. Other than that, he is just a bad businessman."

Hanson said this was the largest builder prosecution his office has handled and he was told it is also the largest one the Florida Homeowners Construction Recovery Fund had dealt with.

For many buyers, a criminal case against Bartlett isn't just a sentimental matter; it could also help their claims to get partially reimbursed by the recovery fund.

Bartlett did not return a message left on his cell phone on Monday. In the past, he has said he never bilked his customers and rather was overwhelmed by too many jobs and escalating costs.

Monday night, he was being held at the Hernando County Jail in lieu of $10,000 bail.

Times staff writer Dan DeWitt contributed to this report. Jonathan Abel can be reached at jabel@sptimes.com or 352 754-6114.

[Last modified November 14, 2006, 23:34:03]