By: Diane Benjamin
Justin Barr appeared in court today to face felony charges of theft by deception. He faces similar charges in Will, Livingston, Marshall, and Woodford County.
Barr agreed to plea to one felony count in exchange for other charges being dropped. 2 of his victims in McLean County will receive restitution, one only partial. Barr was sentenced to 30 months probation and 240 hours of Community Service.
Barr will not serve jail time, but if he returns to deceptive practices he will be in violation of probation. That will land him in jail. The other counties are formulating the same type deal with him
Anyone who was deceived by Barr, but charges weren’t filed, won’t see any money.
If you plan to hire anyone, it is your job to make sure you aren’t being scammed. Do a Google Search and don’t pay upfront. Don’t rely on recommendations by anyone! Barr’s victims had to fight for justice, some will never get it.
I am sorry but this is not justice. He should sit in jail;. This plea deal is further proof of the weak and ineffective judicial system in action.
Nobody would have gotten their money back if he was in jail. They could have had an expensive trial, restitution is better. He still has a lot of other cases to go.
He also got 240 hours of Community Service, I forgot to put that in the story. It has been updated.
If he gets Community Service though, in each case, will he be earning any money to pay restitution? 1,000, 2,000, 3,000 hours would be great but rather have him work those hours at McDonalds or cutting grass to pay the victims back. There is also no requirement by the court to work a certain number of hours a day/week/month towards restitution. Thus, you would be in the same situation after the probation period if he hasn’t paid people back (small increments, long periods of time, often cents on the dollar).
The best thing would be to get a voluntary pledge of assets (forfeiture) to go towards restitution as part of the plea.
At least those wanting to seek civil judgments will have ample evidence to do so with these pleas.
See the previous response. Checks already cut.
Nope, restitution is not sufficient nor is public service. What this agreement says to people like Barr. Hey if you do this crime you roll the dice. If we catch you all you have to do is pay those you cheated their money back and say “oh my bad”. If you don’t get caught….pay day with no work. That is not a deterrent. Maybe it should be set so if convicted after trial, those who are wronged get paid first then the lawyers get paid last. Maybe then we would see real justice and not big pay days for legal scum. Most lawyers would not take such a case under those circumstances and we would probably be all better for it.
The two victims get their money this week ( I’m told )
In my personal experience, restitution is a joke – folks are not required to pay restitution. I would guess that Justin Barr will not pay restitution to his victims. So I agree that jail time would have a greater impact on him.
The checks have already been made out, or there wouldn’t have been a deal. One is being paid from the bond he posted. Another reason cash bail is vital.
he’ll move to another venue and continue. That’s what scammers do.. Change the business name, blind owner, etc.
Locked up and ordered to pay damages from holdings and then given a time frame after or resentenced. He is the worse of the worse
Restitution RARELY ,if EVER gets paid! It’s a MAJOR joke, and a “feel good” for the court system.. I know of several people who have restitution coming, and NEVER seen a cent! ONE of which was in the 10’s of thousands of dollars! The criminal got 3 months in jail.. and restitution.
The checks have already been cut or there wouldn’t be a deal
Is there no recourse for the victim that is owed restitution of the offender does not pay?
The best way to get paid is to get high bail. It can be used for restitution. Democrats want it eliminated.
Has anyone reached out to Barr , has anyone got his side of the story, I’ve not read any statements from him at all? Or is this your typical one sided witch hunt that happens in most media now days? Just saying anyone knows that the construction industry is tough to be in, there are way more shisters inside the front door than in front of it. Coming from personal experiences it’s really easy for someone not to pay a contractor money owed, but it takes three times as much for the contractor to get it back if not more, most of the time it’s not even worth it. Contractors will not get free help from the state to chase down non paying customers, but only get the reverse. I really can’t believe that contractors are even a thing anymore scary stuff. I’m telling you there is most likely a lot more to this story than lead to believe.
He was charged in 5 counties by accident? One victim yesterday had zero work done.
There is not more to the story. The story is that Barr lived a life of luxury on the deposits for material that he took from people. He would use that deposit to buy fancy clothes, new cars, and fancy “necessities” for his wife. He would take “labor” money from you then drop the materials at your building site and then not return. On top of taking the money from his customers he would not pay the vendor that the material came from. I know at least 5 people that this happened to including my family. There is not another side to this other than Mr. Barr wanted a fancy life and fancier than what he could afford so instead of living simply he chose to steal from those that were hiring him. He got away with this for years and his reputation is catching up to him. Jail time or not he has earned his reputation and that will serve him justice in itself.
https://week.com/2020/02/25/central-illinois-home-builder-to-pay-back-thousands-of-dollars-for-defrauding-customers/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook_25_News
That really doesn’t mean anything if you are versed in construction my husband has owned a construction company for years, some years ago excellent and others go to hell in a handbasket so to speak so many variables are involved weather, labor and customers. Just saying I would like to hear Barr’s side of the story before passing the ax. We live in an Amazon prime type of society and construction doesn’t fit that criteria you can’t just point click order and get next day. I’m not defending anyone Here like I mentioned above this post has always been a one-sided witchhunt the responsible thing to do would be get the whole story I’ll leave it up to you though You’re the professional!
Get the court transcript. The Assistant State’s Attorney read a long list of excuses he used for not showing up. He has a long list of victims locally who will never see justice because the statute of limitations had expired by the time the current State’s Attorney became aware. His downfall was ripping off an ex-cop in Will county. When he was charged there it set off all the other charges.
“Do a Google Search and don’t pay upfront.” Definitely don’t pay up front, but just as WGLT used to be a respected news source, my oft-repeated “Google is your friend” no longer holds true either. They are part of the left-wing ‘big tech / big brother’ that practices soft censorship to advance their politics. I recommend DuckDuckGo.com, DogPile.com, or Bing.com, in that order of preference. More than happy to learn of other search engines if other readers have recommendations.