JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The News4JAX I-TEAM is getting a better understanding from the State Attorney’s Office about why they were unable to prosecute former Jacksonville contractor Wyatt Green on the 20 felony charges he once faced.
In a deal, Green pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of misrepresenting himself as a contractor and the felonies were dropped.
Green paid $50,000 in restitution to five victims, but more than a dozen other people who say they gave Green’s former company -- Storm RS -- thousands of dollars without the jobs being finished, say they’ve received no financial relief.
In 2019, Green faced 20 felony charges of fraud, forgery and grand theft, accused of cashing the insurance checks of customers without completing the work.
In an email sent to customers who complained about Green to prosecutors, Assistant State Attorney David Johnston writes:
“When this case started it seemed like a simple case. Defendant Green took money to do jobs and never did them. Open and shut. He’s guilty of fraud. However, as we received more information the case became more complicated.”
The email goes on to say, “We discovered that the Storm Restoration Services business model was as a sales company, and not a contracting firm. Their only purpose was to negotiate with insurance companies and facilitate someone else repairing the damage. In the process they had customers sign a contract with a lot of terms -- none of them illegal…”
Prosecutors say customers, many of whom contacted the I-TEAM, were unaware of the business terms, so when Storm RS signed customers’ names on checks and didn’t start the work for over a year or cashed the insurance checks without the customers knowing about it, they say customers rightfully thought Storm RS was committing fraud.
Prosecutors say the situation got more complicated because Green sold his company to Rogero Roofing without telling customers. The terms of that sale specifically prohibited disclosing the sale to people whose insurance checks had already been cashed.
While a civil lawsuit is still pending over the sale of Storm RS, some customers like Lori Cooper, who paid Green $8,000, still haven’t had any of the work completed, and are disappointed in the plea deal.
“He got out of prison by not having a jury trial. If this case had gone to trial before a jury, I have no doubt the jury would have convicted him and he would have gone to prison,” Cooper said.
The I-TEAM reached the owner of Rogero Roofing -- Jeremy Rogero -- Tuesday on his cellphone to get his side of the story and to find out if his company plans to complete the contracts sold to him by Green. Rogero hung up the phone when I identified myself.