Tri-City Contractor Facing Big Felony Theft, Scam Charges

According to Benton County court documents, a Kennewick-based concrete contractor was arraigned Friday on charges he took at least $5,000 in down payments for work, but never performed any services.

The owner of Jesse's Custom Concrete, Jesse Scott Espinoza, was accused to taking the two separate payments but never began the work. He is also accused of working as a unregistered contractor, not having signed up with Labor and Industries.

He apparently continued to work despite having his registration terminated May 2 of this year. He'd failed to follow through on a payment plan for thousands of dollars of overdue workman's comp insurance fees.

According to KNDU-TV and L&I, Espinoza owes more than $18K in such fees. Earlier in May after his suspension, an L&I official caught his workers installing sidewalks in Richland, and they were issued a citation for performing unregistered work.  He is due in court December 11th on the two felony theft charges stemming from the down payments.