Where is Garvin now?

Legal troubles for contractors in the BuildTrend ring continue into 2017.

Garvin Arthur Donaghy (and his companies RBS Builders and RBSF) were "project manager" agents of BuildTrend on several projects in Pennsylvania, including after the time when Shawn Gerety (aka Sean Gerety, Shawn Nicola) began to communicate bankruptcy plans for the BuildTrend entity to certain customers. Gerety was simultaneously starting new entities and moving south to Delaware and Maryland as Garvin was approaching customers for incremental payments and change orders. From the perspective of many BuildTrend customers, Garvin Donaghy and Gerety were one in the same.

A paint supplier started legal action against Garvin in Delaware County civil action 2017-002231: Sherwin-Williams Co vs Donaghy. Garvin failed to respond and Sherwin-Williams won a default judgement for $7,100 in April.

Garvin owns real estate in Media, PA and has a history of tax liens and judgments. This blog has previously covered Garvin's associations with BuildTrend (see 2015-Sept RBSF & JD Kelly).

RBSF Construction Company retains an active home improvement contractor registration in PA #114667 with an address of 3 East Spring Oak Circle, Media PA 19063.  The registration for one of Garvin's other companies RBS Builders (HIC #088891) expired and was not renewed.

Judge rules in favor of this blog

Vincent Cottrell initiated legal action against this blog in Delaware County case 2015-010034 alleging slander/libel/defamation. Court filings show Cottrell attempting to enforce a subpoena of Google while John Doe (contributors to this blog) filed a motion to quash and seek a protective order. On May 30, the Honorable G. Michael Green heard oral arguments from attorneys from each side. In a ruling file stamped on June 1, the judge ruled in favor of the blog with an Order to Quash the Subpoena and to Issue Protective Order.

Dispute between Cottrell and his own attorney also appears in the public records of this case. Court records show Cottrell's attorney Joseph J. Dougherty, Esq first resigned as counsel to Cottrell in February 2017 telling the court that Cottrell had outstanding balances for legal bills.  The judge granted the attorney's petition to withdraw as counsel on March 27.  But by March 31, Dougherty is filing with the same court that he is back as Cottrell's counsel, presumably after getting paid in the interim. Somehow Cottrell finds the money to pay his attorney, but can't collect funds to pay full restitution to his theft victims by the first sentencing date in his criminal theft case.

Also of note, the hearing on motions relating to this blog was not the only reason for Cottrell to be in the Media courthouse on May 30, 2017.  In the very same courthouse on the very same day, Cottrell was finally sentenced for criminal theft (Case CP-23-CR-0001749-2016) in a negotiated guilty plea with the Delaware County DA. This is Cottrell's latest conviction in a long record of theft and deceptive business practices crimes in Montgomery, Philadelphia and Delaware Counties in Pennsylvania and independent theft and theft by deception crimes in New Jersey.  Vincent Cottrell also uses the names Vincent Edward, Vincent Edward C and Vincent Edward Cottrell III.

Cottrell Sentenced in Delco Criminal Theft

Cottrell's Pennsylvania criminal record and docket sheet for CP-23-CR-0001749-2016 have been updated for his sentencing on May 30.  These public records show that Vincent Cottrell negotiated a guilty plea to misdemeanor criminal theft and was sentenced to Intermediate Punishment Program (IPP) for up to 24 months and Probation for up to 3 years. Cottrell's IPP requires that he wear an electronic monitor (ankle bracelet) and remain confined to his home for 6 months and perform 80 hours of community service. We hear from multiple sources that his Probation/Parole also requires that he pay fees to the County to monitor his activity and prohibits visitors except as approved.

The reason for continuance of his sentencing from May 15 to May 30 was Cottrell telling the judge he would need more time to assemble the balance of the funds to return to the victims.  The docket sheet reflects that Cottrell ultimately did pay full restitution to the victims of his thefts, without disclosing the amount.

Congratulations to Delaware County District Attorney Jack Whelan and his office for securing a conviction and bringing Cottrell to justice in one incident of construction contracting scams in your district and for a process which resulted in monetary recovery for one family.

Please send any additional information to supplement or correct any errors in this post to: buildtrendscam@gmail.com.  This blog will always default to protecting anonymity unless a contributor requests attribution.