Portrait of a ripoff artist

This is George O'Dell, the contractor we trusted to build a two-car, two-motorcycle garage with a second-floor photo studio back in 2007.

He's holding a piece of the $9,000 concrete pad we bought that had to be ripped out because the concrete guys George hired didn't bother to dig proper footers and because it would have gone to pieces if we had stuck a garage and vehicles on top of it. It would have had to be demolished anyway, because George didn't bother to contact Thorntown building officials to learn he was putting the pad too close to the property lines. (The tattoos represent the birth dates of his children. Isn't that darling? What a loving, Christian parent. At least that's what he professed to be.)

The photo was taken on May 3, 2007 - two days after we gave George a check for $14,920 to buy construction materials for the garage. He presumably was going to complete the demolition of the faulty concrete pad and have a good one poured.

George and his crew made their last appearance at our place the next day. On June 28, we hired another contractor to remove the remaining 20 percent or so of the concrete and grade the back yard.

George had told us he used our money to buy our construction materials at Menards. A check with all of the area Menards stores showed that no such transaction took place.

About a month or so after George quit returning our calls, Maria left him a voicemail saying we needed the promised revised garage plans, proof of bonding and insurance and a receipt from Menards for the building materials. Now, a decade later, we're still waiting for a response.

After three months of silence, we filed a complaint with the Consumer Protection Division of the Indiana Attorney General's Office. Several lawyers told us we were guaranteed a victory if we took the matter to court, but that we would never see a dime of restitution. The only way to get leverage on people like George, they said, is to attach the threat of criminal prosecution to the case, which is what happens when the Attorney General gets involved.

Months later, the Consumer Protection Division said they couldn't do anything because there was no history of criminal activity for George.

Maria did a Google search last week and discovered there is plenty of criminal history on him now.

She found that George was convicted in 2015 of eight felonies, including one count of fraud on a financial institution, five counts of forgery and two counts of theft.

According to court documents, O’Dell used someone else’s identity to gain employment with a locally-based property management company. While working for the company, he informed two investors in California that an apartment complex was available for sale.
He had funds sent to him from investors and a subsequent investigation determined the apartment complex was never for sale.

One of the California investors heard through a friend about an investment opportunity with a man named Emmanuel Roddy. The investor said that he never met the man in person and that they only communicated by text message and email.

The investor said he began his business relationship with Roddy, really O’Dell, by buying a house in the 9400 block of Rochelle Street on the Far Eastside of Indianapolis, court documents said. The investor paid more than $10,000 to complete repairs on the home and decided to continue working with the man because the transaction went well.

O’Dell continued to find homes in Indianapolis for the investor to buy, including properties on Sawyer Street and Olney Street, court documents said. In September 2014, the investor wire transferred more than $11,500 into O’Dell’s bank account for the Sawyer Street home, and more than $27,400 was moved into the account for the Olney Street home.

The investor said the sale of the homes was never completed because he was told there were problems with the properties, court documents said. The money the investor wired into the bank account was never returned.

O’Dell then told the investor about an opportunity to become part owner of an Indianapolis apartment complex, Woodview Terrace. O’Dell persuaded the investor to transfer an additional $1,600 into the bank account in December 2014, court documents allege, making his total investment about $40,000.

Before the Woodview Terrace deal, the investor also told a California friend about the home in Indianapolis he bought through O’Dell.
Interested, the second investor started working in a similar fashion with O’Dell, still known only as Roddy. Court documents said he paid O’Dell $13,500 in October 2014 to invest in a home on Boulevard Place. When the deal fell through, the money stayed in O’Dell’s bank account.

When he learned of the Woodview Terrace opportunity, the second investor moved an additional $16,500 into the bank account in November 2014, making his total investment in the property $30,000.

Afterward neither investor was able to contact O’Dell.

The initial investor called Park Place Property Management officials, who informed him that O’Dell, a maintenance worker and contractor, was no longer with the company and that Woodview Terrace was never for sale.

Park Place officials contacted authorities.

A detective learned that on May 12, 2014, O’Dell opened a bank account under Roddy’s name, court documents said. The bank signature card included Roddy’s social security number, another individual’s driver’s license number and an address belonging to O’Dell.

A managing partner for Park Place Property said he first met O’Dell, posing as Roddy, when he rented a property managed by Park Place, court documents said. The managing partner said O’Dell did some repairs on the property that turned out well, so O’Dell was brought on as a contractor.

The managing partner fired O’Dell after he admitted to stealing two checks from the company, court documents said. O’Dell also sent an email to Park Place management admitting that used a company credit card to make personal purchases.

O’Dell was arrested and booked into the Marion County Jail on July 29, 2015. He was charged Aug. 4. He remained in custody on a $50,000 bond until his sentencing three months later.

He was sentenced to three years of home detention and a year of probation.