A Norfork man has been arrested for taking money to do construction work and never doing the job and not having a license to do construction work. Arrested on the charges December 10th, was 25-year-old Joseph Walker Langston Jr.
According to the probable cause affidavit from the Baxter County Sheriff’s Office, the victims hired Langston in May to replace windows and siding on their house in Clarkridge. Langston prepared a contract for the victims from his company called Construction Worx LLC of Norfork. The cost of the materials was $10,379, which Langston asked the victim to pay for up front so he could start the job, and the cost for labor was set at $9,121. The victim wrote a check for the materials at that time.
After about one month, the victim talked to Langston to get an update on the project. Langston told him the materials were hard to get due to the recent tornados in the area. The victim continued to check with Langston several times a month. Eventually Langston told him he had another person who could do the tear off work but he would have to pay that person an additional $1,800. The victim agreed and sent the check.
Langston continued to give a variety of reasons why the work had not started. He gave the victim the name of the building supply company where he ordered the materials, but when the victim called to check on the status, he discovered no supplies had been ordered for his project.
The victim in October went to Langston’s home in an attempt to get his money back. Langston wrote him two checks and asked him to wait three weeks before cashing the first one and three more weeks before cashing the second one which the victim agreed to do.
A few days after the first check was deposited, it was returned for insufficient funds and the victim contacted the sheriff’s office.
During the investigation, Langston says he took the victim’s money but was unable to complete the job because after depositing the money, it was garnished by a loan company for a student loan he had. A subpoena was presented to the bank and an examination of Langston’s account was conducted but it did not show any withdrawal by a financial institution for a student loan.
Langston is facing a felony charge of theft of property and a misdemeanor charge of failure to perform construction work without a license. He was also booked on misdemeanor failure to appear charges out of Izard County. He is free after posting $25,665 bond.
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