A Franklin man who was accused of theft and home improvement fraud has had his charges dropped.
John R. Park was originally charged in May 2018 for theft and home improvement fraud, which are both felonies, after a woman reported that she paid Park to install a pool, but the work was never done.
The woman involved in the case has since passed away and without her cooperation there was no longer a case, Johnson County Prosecutor Joe Villanueva said.
However, Park is facing a possible probation violation for a previous case involving home improvement fraud. The violation case is still pending, but the violation is in regards to not paying victim restitution in another case, he said.
Park had previously pleaded guilty to felony theft charges and served time in prison after local residents made similar reports, saying they paid him thousands of dollars to install pools at their homes and the work was never done.
In 2004, prosecutors filed multiple charges against Park, including theft and home improvement fraud, after getting reports from at least five families that Park had bilked them out of $70,000.
All of the families reported they had hired Park to install pools at their homes, paid him — in some cases giving him more than $10,000 — and work was either never started or left unfinished. When they tried to reach Park, they couldn’t, they told police.
At the time, Park, who owned Hoosier Pools in Franklin, said the cases were misunderstandings, and he intended to do the work but had run into financial troubles with his business.
This case is still ongoing and a fact-finding hearing regarding the probation violation is scheduled for next month, according to court documents.
In 2008, Park pleaded guilty to three counts of theft and was sentenced to a year in prison and two years of probation. That sentence was combined into an 18-month sentence on three theft convictions in Hancock County, court records show.
Park was also ordered to pay more than $37,000 in restitution to local families, according to court records.
