-[Acker] Pursuing him for unfinished work. -Correct.
[DiMango] Is this the bathroom he did for you?
-No. -That's her bathroom.
You got a nice bathroom.
Tell all your friends, "Watch the show, they have my bathroom on it."
See, he does great work.
[narrator] Today on Tribunal Justice.
[theme music playing]
[narrator] Previously on Tribunal Justice...
What is this?
[Malcolm] This is the shower that was ripped out.
-[Lisa] This the-- Yes. -[Acker] After?
[Lisa] This is the shower that he built. It had to all be ripped up.
Oh, my goodness.
We found out he had been arrested for robbing a bank.
This is a man I've just had in my home.
Did he steal from you?
Yes.
In your complaint, you want us to believe that he has this criminal record,
that you didn't know about, you found out about it,
and now you're so concerned that he's taken these muscle relaxers,
you can't trust him anymore,
this forced us to hire a new contractor.
So we can already agree that what you put in your complaint was inaccurate.
[narrator] And now, for the conclusion.
Now, the new contractor comes in, he has every reason to lie to you.
Right? Every reason.
But instead of getting an independent person to come in and say,
"Listen, we don't know what the hell's going on.
This isn't our business, we don't know."
But what we do know is we still got water.
You don't know what the water's from.
We got this new guy coming in, who says, "Oh, this other contractor is so terrible.
You give it to me and I'm gonna make it all right."
Two thousand, two hundred dollars.
He had 2,200 reasons, right, to misrepresent it to you.
Once he completed his job,
we have not had a piece of water coming through that--
-Not a drop of water. -Not a drop of water.
-[Levy] Did he do a water test? -[Lisa] Yes.
[Levy] Did you see him do that?
-I didn't sit for the days he was there. -[Levy] No of course not. Of course not.
So you know what he could not have allowed to happen?
He could not have allowed to happen another flood.
So whatever he did when he was taking that apart,
he made sure that if there was anything wrong,
anything whatsoever wrong with any cracked pipes,
that they were fixed.
Now, I want you to tell me what you saw him do.
He came back. He ran the water.
What do you mean, "ran the water," what does that mean?
He turned the shower on, let the shower run for a long time.
That's what the water-- He turned on the shower,
he let it run, the water was going down the drain.
-After a week of us using-- -[Levy] Right. And that's what he did.
Why don't you tell them what a water test is?
-You're supposed to do a flood test. -[Levy] That's what I meant, a flood test.
-In which you fill up the pan to the top. -[Levy] How do fill it up, you plug it?
Plug it, fill it up to the top and you let it sit.
Did you watch him do that flood test? Plug the drain,
and fill up the basin,
-for lack of a better word? -I didn't.
No, you didn't, you didn't see him put a mark
on the pan, and leave it for about an hour,
and see if the water is seeping down through the cracks
or somewhere else that's getting behind the water-proofing pan.
That's what you do when you see water down there
and you're asked to come in, as this guy was,
to do a re-inspection.
He didn't tell that to you because he didn't care.
He knew you were upset with him.
He knew that all he needed to do was to blame him.
And he knew if he, the new guy,
blamed him, you were gonna hire him,
because that's how you do a flood test.
The guy lied to you.
I'm not saying that what he did was perfect,
but you can't stand here and say, "Oh, this guy educated us.
He was the best thing in the world. He made all this right."
He had a vested interest in that.
Thank you, I have nothing further.
[DiMango] Now that we've completed your case against the defendant,
we're going to ask you, Mr. and Mrs. Scott, to be seated
and that means you, Miss Mims,
who is the plaintiff bringing the cause of action in the second case,
would step up in their stead.
So please make that exchange.
And so this case now is Part B,
and you, Miss Mims, are suing the defendant, Mr. Makosiej.
Correct.
[Acker] Miss Mims, your case against the defendant is for $7,500.
You're suing him for what you describe as improper work,
and unfinished work.
Mr. Makosiej, you maintain that the defendant, Miss Mims,
in this case, did not let you finish,
and this was a bedroom, bathroom remodel? Yes?
-Correct. -[Acker] The original estimate I think
-was $5000. It increases to $7500. -Right.
He does four days of work in the house
and then according to your complaint,
your nephew starts finding deficiencies in the defendant's work.
-Correct? -Correct.
And you also then mention the false last name.
I am going to give you, sir, a moment to address this,
because I'm wildly uncomfortable with making conclusions
about someone's background when they've served their time
-and there's no evidence... -Sure.
...of any illegal conduct.
I don't think that people who've served their time
have to be punished forever when they're doing honest work.
So is there anything you'd like to address on that point?
I mean, it's all public record.
If anybody searches my name, which if somebody was in my house,
I would probably do the same thing.
But there's no law that says I have to use my full name.
So absent any allegation he was stealing
from you or doing drugs in your house,
I'm not here for it.
So, we're gonna move on.
The day after your nephew starts taking issue with his work,
didn't you tell them, sir,
that you'd correct the mistakes and refund the money?
-Did you do that? -Yes, I refunded the money that morning.
So the day after your nephew points out the problems with his work,
he comes back, gives you back the $2000 that you paid for phase two,
and corrects the issues, does he not?
He didn't fully correct the issues...
-[Acker] I'm reading from your complaint. -...there was still-- Yes.
"Returned the same day and corrected the issues."
And in your sworn complaint, you then say that you repaid him
-the $2000 that he gave back to you. -Yes.
So that suggests to me that he addressed your issues,
gave you your money back,
you said okay, now I'm gonna repay you.
I'm making these points with respect to the timeline,
simply to point out what this defendant did,
because you're trying to get $7500 from him,
for a job he didn't finish when you didn't let him finish.
And we know that, and I'm gonna keep it moving,
because it seems that things really broke down on the 26th.
By the 26th, according to you,
he was supposed to show up,
-but he didn't. Correct? -Correct.
[Acker] Why didn't you show up on the 26th, sir?
On Monday morning we texted
and I told her I wanted to give the self-leveling concrete
a little more time to dry.
She sent me a picture, it was a little wet still,
so I used that as time to start another job.
I said, "Well, we got a couple things going on,
so we'll just see you tomorrow morning."
That delay and not coming for whatever reason,
gave her time to get online and start digging around about you.
And that's why I think
a lot of the breakdown and this situation started,
not because he wasn't there on the 26th,
it's because you got suspicious.
You went online, you started seeing things online.
You started investigating his background, there was a different name,
and so red flags went up.
And after you did that,
there was some communication between the two of you,
because, sir, you became aware of the fact
that she was reaching out to prior customers and disgruntled people.
-Didn't you? And you didn't like it. -Yeah, I did.
Well, the job we were working for was actually a police officer,
and we lost that job when this whole thing kind of blew up on social media.
I will say that the job for the police officer that he's speaking of,
he came into my house and said that
the police officer's girlfriend was taking her time trying to find a vanity,
so he passed on that job
-to take my job. -[Acker] So?
I mean, what is that? So then he went back and took that job.
Maybe he's like, you know what, I'm trying to build a business.
I don't have time or money to pass on jobs.
Maybe he changed his mind. You know... [scoffs]
I sense that you want to find every single way you can
to try to turn him into some big evil boogeyman
with a different name and a criminal background.
-I even told his witness, you know... -[Acker] Like, I-- I...
So, stop, hold it-- Just stay with me,
because you, in your complaint, say you realize you had been scammed.
-[Mims] Yes. -How did he scam you?
Because it was continual excuses from him.
He wouldn't show up on time.
There would be days that, as he said, when he texted about the floor,
I actually initiated that text and asked him if I could have an ETA,
and then he requested pictures of the floor,
and he said, "Well, let me give it more time to dry."
Okay, that doesn't mean he scammed you.
-He didn't show up. -He told me going to show up every day
and do the job,
-and he didn't show up every day. -[Acker] He worked in your house
from October 20th, on October 26th, he doesn't show up.
I'm just gonna tell you this because I-- You can make this point
-with those judges. -Mm-hmm.
He wasn't even there for, what, two weeks.
So you want to try to create this pattern? He didn't show up, he didn't show up.
What I am trying to get is to whether or not
you've really established your right to get any money back.
[narrator] Coming up on Tribunal Justice...
They go up to my neighbors across the street.
My neighbor comes out and says, "What's going on?
I had two people coming to my door to knock."
"You've got a bank robber in your house." I said it's the contractor...
-I've been dealing with. -[DiMango] It's the contractor. [laughs]
You know--
That's his side job. This is his real job.
-[all laughing] -Right?
[theme music plays]
[narrator] Kristy Mims is suing her former repairman, Brian Makosiej,
for an unfinished renovation to her bathroom and bedroom.
Brian claims Kristy refused to let him finish the job
and kept his expensive tools.
Now, what I want to know is
when did you file your no trespassing order?
-It was the 28th. -[Acker] Of October.
-I didn't go to court to file. -[Acker] Where'd you file it?
I handwrote. I was told all I had to do was handwrite it
-and send it to the address. -[Acker] Okay, fair enough.
So October 28th, eight days after he started the job,
you say don't come back.
And now you want us to give you $7500 after you told him
-he couldn't come back to your house. -Correct.
And not because he threatened you
-at that time. -No.
Not because he stole anything from you,
not because he broke any laws, but he'd been slow in coming back.
And then there are these nasty messages.
You get threats from some unknown number,
-and you submitted those. -Correct.
Did you send messages to her, sir?
No, I did not.
[Acker] You didn't send the text message
that did in fact contain an implied threat?
Because she sent that to her police officer friend.
Yes, she sent me a picture of that.
So the text message she received on November 3rd,
"I would highly suggest you keep whatever is going on between you and him.
When you start harassing family, then it becomes a family issue.
And we deal with family issues differently than you might be used to.
Keep it between you and him. You'll be happy you did."
Now, this is the threatening message
-you received? -Correct.
[Acker] The message is written as if it's not him,
it doesn't appear to be from him, he says it's not from him,
-but you assumed it was. -Mm-hmm.
I'm going to let my other colleagues ask you some questions now. Thank you.
Oh, my God, this is like a scary neighborhood.
I'm really-- I'm afraid of you people.
You want to come across as nice, decent, law-abiding church-going...
What I see are self-righteous, indignant, judgmental people.
And I'm really, really, on behalf of the defendant,
offended and troubled by that.
-Your Honor-- -[DiMango] I mean, I spent a long career
as a judge handling criminal matters,
and yet, no matter what, if I meet somebody with a criminal history
or anybody who's even appeared in front of me that I see at a later time,
I would never assume that they are not rehabilitated,
especially when I see a gentleman who's presenting as he does.
I would not not speak with them.
I would not have, "Don't come near me." No tressp--
I mean, I don't think I would ever engage in that behavior, nor have I.
And I've been really there in the trenches with it,
not like the three of you.
So I'm really troubled by what I see here.
And I'm going to start off by saying that
you're in here trying to say
that after five days, because he--
Like, have you ever had any other contract work done?
-Yes. -If you're gonna tell me those contractors
said, "I'm coming at 9," came at 9, said "I'm leaving at 7," left at 7,
then I'm going to know for sure that you're lying.
Did any of those people ever stick to those things?
-No. -[DiMango] Okay. That being said,
did you fire them in five days?
Yes.
Did you get no-trespass orders against them?
-Yes. -You better look people up online
before you go work for them,
because you're gonna be screwed in the long run.
Your Honor, I will say that--
And I'm not completely against him,
because I did say to his witness,
that with the proper training,
he could probably make a great contractor.
Let me ask you a question, is this the bathroom he did for you?
-[Mims] No. -What is this?
-That's her bathroom. -[DiMango] That's your bathroom?
-Yeah. -You got a nice bathroom.
[audience laughs]
So you can go back home and tell all your friends,
"Watch the show. They have my bathroom on it."
-You should see how good it looks on TV. -[audience laughing]
[DiMango] That's her bathroom.
-See, he does great work. -You know, this is somebody
you didn't call to come in and testify on your behalf.
You know, decent people let things go.
And, you know, what made you go online?
I mean, is that what you do? Do you go online
-after you do this all the time? -No, I wanted to see how many other people
he had actually done this to.
[DiMango] You know, I'm going to tell you what's gonna happen when this show airs.
He's going to get business and nobody's gonna come to the house of any one of you.
-That's what's gonna happen... -Probably.
...because who wants to deal with this?
You know what? Only because you're frustrating the hell out of me.
Stand up and say what it is you want to say.
[audience chuckles]
Okay, so this is what I've got to say.
Ah, thank God. I couldn't wait to hear from you.
She and this other gentleman were following Brian.
They followed him all the way to my house.
He parks his van there
and then they go up to my neighbors across the street.
My neighbor comes out and says, "What's going on?"
He tells me, "I have two people coming to my door to knock.
You've got a bank robber in your house." I said, "It's the contractor,
-I've been dealing with." You know. -It's the contractor. [laughs]
That's his side job. This is his real job.
-[all laughing] -Right?
It's the-- It's the contractor.
So I talked to my neighbor. I said, "He's all good, he's all good."
So I end up calling Kristy,
she tells me all this blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
And then, so I go out and I confront Brian,
and he said, "Yep."
Well, Kristy continued to put bad texts,
Facebook, and all this other mess about what a horrible man he is,
and I know he's not. That's his past.
Past is past.
-We thank you for that. -[Maceachern] Okay.
Did you get everything out that you had to say?
-Well, I'll raise my hand again. -[audience laughing]
Raise your hand when you think you need to say anything.
You know, I think everybody's point here is,
we get it if this were straight you don't like what he did, he did this,
but the point in bringing in all of this extraneous material,
no one here had any-- Let's make this clear.
Nobody here had any allegation
that he did anything unlawful in your home, near your home, to you.
Messages that you say you got
were not from him, it's clear it's not from him,
and these flat tires or whatever that you're alluding to...
You're like saying, "Okay, let's find the one guy that came here,
doesn't belong here with us."
He comes from New York, right,
where I come from, so I'm already, you know, not looking favorably here.
-Ozone Park. -[DiMango] He's coming from a bad city
and he didn't do anything to us,
but we're not taking any chances in our little town,
because we stick together.
As far as the flat tires, I didn't specifically say he did that.
Oh, my God, I didn't specifically say, I just alluded to it
-so it'd be the conclusion people reached. -I just said it was coincidental
that I have sheetrock screws in both rear tires.
But you put these things in court documents and papers,
you didn't hesitate to say a negative, nasty, unwarranted,
or direct statement about him and who he is,
and there's no reason for it.
So don't do that. That-- This aggravates me.
[theme music playing]
[narrator] Coming up on Tribunal Justice...
You take as threatening what you texted him.
-What did I text him? -You just told me what you texted him.
You said, "I have a friend, don't mess with me.
I got a friend in law enforcement. I know about your background.
-Last thing you wanna do, mess with me... -[Mims] Mm-hmm.
because I have a police department behind me that's gonna take care of you."
-"Don't let a bank robber in your house." -That's exactly right.
[theme music plays]
So what's your damages here?
I'm out what it cost me to have a new contractor
come in and tear out what he did wrong.
He didn't get to finish what he did,
so how do you know it would have been wrong in the end?
Judge Levy.
In one of the text messages, just so I'm clear,
you had indicated to the defendant in the text message
that based upon what he did,
you were going to a friend of yours who was a police officer.
I told him that I had sent a copy of the text
to a police officer friend of mine
just for advice to say what should I do.
Okay. Did you take that as threatening, by the way?
I did, because--
No, no, no. No, no, no. You take as threatening what you texted him?
What did I text him?
You just told me what you texted him. You said, "I have a friend."
That's what you said.
And that was intentional. "I have a friend. Don't mess with me.
I got a friend in law enforcement. I know about your background.
Last thing you want to do, mess with me,
because I have a police department behind me
that's gonna take care of you."
-"Don't let a bank robber in your house." -[Levy] That's exactly right.
That's exactly right. Let me ask you a question.
-[Levy] I got this, this what I have. -I had nothing to do with that.
I just-- You see this-- I just make a little circle here.
If this was a wall in your home, a sheetrock wall,
and you wanted a little tiny hole or dent this size, fixed,
and you hired a contractor,
how many days do you think it would take to fix that?
-Couple of hours? -Probably two or three.
Two or three days, as opposed to two or three hours?
You gotta let the sheetrock stuff dry.
"You gotta let the sheetrock stuff dry."
-Yeah. -You know what takes
a heck of a lot longer to dry than sheetrock mud?
Cement.
-But why does it take him... -[Levy] Cement.
[Levy] Cement. Wait, wait, wait, hold on one second.
What material were you using in the, in the shower?
-Self-leveling. -[Levy] Self-leveling?
-Self-leveling concrete, yeah. -[Levy] Concrete.
So you knew before you brought the lawsuit
that there was a legitimate reason why
a contractor, like this one, wouldn't be able to come and do a job
every single day on a shower because things have to set.
-You knew that. Right? -Sure.
It takes time to set. That's all I want to ask.
Thank you, I'm done.
We're going to retire to deliberate. Thank you all.
[Byrd] Court now stands in recess. Parties are excused.
I believe that both of these cases should be dismissed.
I don't think that there was any credible evidence
that was provided by the plaintiffs in Case A,
that's the Scotts, to indicate that the defendant
used the credit card illegally, unlawfully.
Failed to finish the job? Yeah, you failed to finish the job
because you got an order telling him to stay out of your house.
So that's my position.
I believe the plaintiffs failed to meet their burden.
Let me first address the Scotts,
because I see their situation very differently
than I do Miss Mims' case.
With respect to the $700 worth of little items,
they add up $748, and on top of that,
the defendant did say I'm going to come back and do some other work.
He didn't do it.
So I'm actually inclined to rule in their favor.
With respect to Miss Mims' case. I just want to dismiss it.
With regard to the $748,
I am in agreement with giving them back that money
because, only because, he said I will come back and do work for you
because I agree that perhaps there was some overspending
that shouldn't have been tacked on to you.
But the bottom line is I think they'd be entitled to the 748.
And with regard to Mims, I'm totally on board with dismissing the whole thing.
I think that she got on board like you couldn't believe,
to find this guy was a thief, a criminal,
and he was gonna steal from her.
-I-- I... -[Acker] They were having
-neighborhood watch parties. -Yeah, I mean...
-My God, I don't know... -Following him around the neighborhood.
-So I'll dissent on Scott... -[Levy] Yes.
...because I would award them the additional 2200.
-And we're unanimous in Mims. -[Levy] Right.
And the 2200, we do not agree with
because he would have come back
and he would have fixed that job, but for the--
At least he should have said no he wasn't gonna do it or not shown up,
but she didn't give him that opportunity
-on that issue. -Got it.
I agree.
Court is back in session.
Parties are reminded, you're still under oath.
Okay, Mr. and Mrs. Scott, with respect to your case, first,
I will be handling and then Judge Acker
will take the second case, that's yours, Miss Mims.
With respect to your case, we did not have a unanimous verdict.
It was a split verdict.
Judge Acker would have decided and did decide
that you were entitled, Mr. and Mrs. Scott, to the $748
that you claim were unauthorized.
And quite frankly, Judge DiMango and I agreed to a certain extent.
But for the most part, we are unanimous in that $748 verdict in your favor.
Judge Acker would also give you $2200
as a result of the work that your new contractor did.
That is where Judge DiMango and I disagree that as the defendant indicated,
he would have come back to have done that work,
but there was no evidence that you provided that I saw
that indicated you had provided the defendant with notice
that if he didn't come back immediately,
you were going to be hiring someone else to do the job
and seeking reimbursement from him,
and as a result of that, the verdict of the three of us
is that you are to receive the $748,
but that's the extent of your damages.
Thank you. -[gavel bangs]
With respect to your case against the defendant, Miss Mims,
we are entirely unanimous.
Um, I will first point out,
what we think happened here is that you decided to ascribe to him
certain improper conduct with no evidence,
solely because of his background.
And in fact, when we looked at those text messages,
as Judge Levy pointed out,
your messages to him were far more threatening
than anything he received from you.
To suggest to someone with a background
that suggests that they've made some serious mistakes,
to kind of throw that thing out,
"I got friends in law enforcement, I know people." That's a threat.
Actually, I'm going to go a little further than that,
I think that was a low blow.
I'll just speak for myself, but I can speak for my colleagues
when I say that the assumptions you were trying to make about this gentleman,
based not on his work, but on his past, were inappropriate.
You're suing for $7500 for unfinished and improper work.
We're dismissing your claim in its entirety,
but good luck to all of you, and we hope that you find people
who you're happy and comfortable with.
Good luck to you, sir. We hope that you're able to continue your fresh start.
-Thank you, Your Honor. -That's our verdict in this case.
These cases are now concluded.
Parties are excused, you may step out.
It wasn't expressed to me that it was a major leak.
If I would have known the extent of the water coming into the house,
if I had to pull myself in there off a gurney,
I would have got under that house to check it out.
He had an e-mail that said, "S.O.S.",
specifically, "we've got water coming in."
You would think that sense of urgency
would have given him enough to say I'm gonna respond to that e-mail tonight
or tomorrow. Nothing happened.
[laughs] Get here as quick as you can.
Mmm, that he did crappy work
and he continues to do crappy work and he gets by with it.
She's been on social media since the first day,
bashing me, slandering me, um...
I just hope it comes to an end.
Make sure they're licensed, make sure they're insured,
make sure they're bonded and check their driver's license.
[narrator] Did someone break your agreement?
Let Tribunal Justice decide your case.
Find us on social media at Tribunal Justice.
[theme music playing]