A Westminster businessman charged with accepting down payments for carpet services and not performing the work was released on bail yesterday.
State police arrested Roy D. Marshall, 32, of Willow Avenue, on Friday after receiving more than a dozen complaints accusing him of accepting down payments for carpet services and depositing the money in an Ohio bank without performing the work.
Marshall owns and operates Marshall's Carpet & Services in Reese. He was arrested at home on a warrant after being charged in 13 counts, including theft over $300, passing bad checks without sufficient funds, and related conspiracy offenses, police said.
Marshall was released yesterday from the Carroll County Detention Center after posting $10,000 fully secured bail.
Marshall was to be sentenced today on an unrelated bad check charge stemming from a December trial during which he pleaded not guilty but agreed not to contest the prosecutor's statement of the facts, court records show.
Circuit court records show Marshall has a series of convictions dating to 1989 for passing bad checks or violating probation. He received probation before judgment or suspended sentences in those cases.
Prosecutors said the recent complaints to the state's attorney's office -- about 15 in the past four to six weeks -- may be only the "tip of the iceberg."
Typically, complainants said, Marshall accepted a down payment to perform services and the customers never heard from him again. Five of the 13 counts against him are for theft.
According to court records, prosecutors feared in early July that Marshall was going to close his business and leave town. Believing that Marshall was depositing money in an Ohio bank account, prosecutors obtained a bench warrant for his arrest.
David Weisgerber, a Westminster attorney representing Marshall at yesterday's bail review, told Arnold that his client has never been guilty of anything but having cash flow problems.
"He's always robbing Peter to pay Paul," Weisgerber said. "He has never been guilty of any violent crime and is not a threat to run away."
Pub Date: 7/22/97
