After case falls through cracks, landscaper pays only $12,000 in penalties and restitution instead of $244,000

Any way you slice it, Paul B. Gardner II, a Douglas County landscaper, is a lucky man today.

In March 2009, a Douglas County judge ordered Gardner, who owned Dreamscapes Landscape and Irrigation Inc., to pay $244,200 in penalties, fees and customer restitution.

Former Kansas Attorney General Stephen Six had accused Gardner of ripping off a number of customers by taking their deposits for landscaping but never doing the work.

But the case got lost inexplicably for almost eight years.

Attorneys for the current attorney general, Derek Schmidt, were assigned to review old cases and found it earlier this year. On Tuesday, Gardner signed a consent agreement with the state that ordered him to pay restitution and legal fees that were greatly reduced: only $8,342.33 to two former customers and $4,200 in legal investigative fees to the state.

Terence E. Leibold, a Lawrence attorney, said this week that Gardner, his client, had never been served a summons in the original case filed in December 2008. It was only a few weeks ago that Gardner learned about it.

“When he was served earlier this year, it was the first time he was aware that it was out there,” Leibold said. In the 2008 case, when Gardner didn’t show up for the hearing, “they just didn’t do anything to enforce it.”

Gardner told the Journal-World on Friday that he never intended to hurt anyone. He said his business ran into trouble when the economy crashed in late 2008. In addition, he said his company was negatively affected when Barstow Construction went under because Gardner had a large contract with Barstow.

“I didn’t even know this until I got served six or eight weeks ago,” he said. “There was never any intention to hurt anybody or not do their projects. I’m an Eagle Scout and have always tried to do the right thing.”

Jennifer Rapp, spokeswoman for Schmidt, said she was unaware of how the case fell through the cracks early on because a different administration had handled the case.

“We cannot speculate on actions of the previous administration,” Rapp said.

As for Schmidt’s administration, the case was located because Schmidt has attorneys who look at old cases from time to time.

“As time and resources allow, we have an ongoing review of older cases to assess whether further collections are possible,” Rapp said. “This is one from the past we were able to resolve.”

In late 2008, Gardner’s Dreamscapes Landscape and Irrigation company in Lawrence began sinking fast along with the economy.

By March 2009, Gardner was accused by the state of scamming at least six customers, according to court records.

Gardner had told those customers that he required 50 percent down and collected about $30,000 from each, but then he didn’t do the work and they complained to the attorney general’s customer protection division.

When Gardner didn’t appear at a hearing in March 2009, the judge issued a default judgment ordering Gardner to pay a total of $244,200 in penalties, fees and customer restitution.

Meanwhile, after his company failed, Gardner went back to his customers, and most of them agreed to let him do the work that he had promised to do initially. Only a couple customers weren’t willing to let him do the work.

About two months ago, Gardner, who is now a handyman, came home from work and spotted a paper stuffed in the top of a sliding glass door. When he opened it and saw how much he owed, he said he didn’t know what to think.

“For several years, I’ve just been trying to get my feet back under me, and do the right thing,” he said. “I just couldn’t figure out what happened to the first (summons).”

The penalties were reduced, he said, because some of the customers agreed to drop their complaints and some wrote letters of recommendation.

Two of Gardner’s former customers, Charles Swain of Shawnee and Steven Roxberg of Overland Park, will share the $8,342.33 in restitution. The consent agreement has set up a payment schedule for Gardner that requires him to have the debt paid in full by Sept. 15, 2017.