By Shereen Siewert
WAUSAU — A warrant has been issued for the arrest of a New Lisbon man facing theft accusations, after the man failed to show up for a scheduled court date.
James Johnathan Swartz, 36, was set to appear Tuesday in Marathon County Circuit Court for a preliminary hearing in the case. Circuit Judge LaMont Jacobson authorized the warrant when Swartz failed to show.
Swartz is one of two men accused of defrauding an elderly Edgar man in an apparent driveway paving scam. Police say Swartz and 32-year-old Richard P. Harris of Tomah persuaded an elderly Edgar man to hire them to coat his driveway without a state-required contract and charged the man twice what the job should have cost.
Both men were charged with theft by false representation with special facts. Harris was convicted in September.
The two could have been using the business name “Cuzzin’ Jim’s Hot Mix Asphalt Paving,” police said, based on a pamphlet that was found in their possession during a traffic stop.
In July, Edgar Police Chief Jeanette Stankowski said the duo first came to her attention in 2016, after allegations surfaced that they defrauded another area man by grinding up recycled blacktop, placing it through a paving machine, rolling it onto a driveway and passing the job off as a legitimate blacktop job.
Both men have a long history of drug and other convictions, according to online court records. Swartz sometimes uses an alias, going by the names Brandon Lee Goodwin, JimmyJon Swartz and Vincent S. Williams, court records show.
