photo by: Mugshot Courtesy of the Lawrence Police Department

Jason Lee Stark is pictured with the Douglas County Judicial and Law Enforcement Center.

A judge heard evidence of an alleged felony theft on Monday, but the attorney for the man accused said that the case shouldn’t even be in criminal court because the victim willingly paid for services that the suspect failed to provide.

The accused, Jason Lee Stark, 34, of Lawrence, is charged in Douglas County District Court with one felony count of theft.

A woman testified on Monday that she paid Stark in April of 2024 to repair eight windows in her home that were rotting. She said that she paid him $2,000 up front and planned to pay him another $3,000 when the job was finished. She said Stark, who ha previously done work on the home’s guttering, wrote her a receipt and began working on one of the windows.

However, after Stark cashed the first check, he started coming up with excuses for why he couldn’t come to the woman’s house to complete the job. Stark eventually stopped responding to the woman altogether.

At one point before stopping contact, Stark showed her some work that he did on the removed window but when the woman later recovered the repaired window, it had been repaired with particle board which would not hold up to rain or other weather. She said she eventually hired another contractor to repair the windows. The woman eventually found Stark’s residence and took her window from his garage while Stark was not home.

Stark’s attorney, John DeMarco, said that the Douglas County District Attorney’s Office erred in filing the criminal case at all. He said that the allegation against Stark was that he “exerted unauthorized control” over the woman’s money but that was untrue because the woman had entered a legally binding contract with Stark by writing him a check, for which he gave her a receipt.

DeMarco said that the state could have charged it as a “theft by deception” case and alleged that Stark intended to take the money from the beginning but even that would not be accurate either. He said that Stark and the woman had an established relationship of trust and that while Stark was unable to finish the window job, there was no evidence to show he didn’t intend to from the beginning.

“If you pay someone and they don’t finish the job, it isn’t charged as a theft,” DeMarco said.

Senior Assistant District Attorney Eve Kemple said that the felony theft charge was accurate since he “ghosted” the woman after taking her money and window.

Judge Amy Hanley said she wanted both attorneys to write additional briefs about the case and why it should or shouldn’t be charged as theft. She scheduled additional arguments and her ruling on July 28.

Whether Stark’s alleged actions were criminal or not, the alleged victim has already been awarded her money back in a civil suit that was decided by Judge Blake Glover last week. The woman sued Stark in April of this year, and after he failed to appear for hearings in that case, Glover awarded the woman $2,168 in damages.

Stark is currently in custody at the Douglas County jail and faces charges on one counteach of attempted robbery, interference with law enforcement and criminal use of a weapon for possessing a shotgun with a barrel less than 18 inches. He is scheduled to go to trial on those charges, which are unrelated to the current window case, in October.