The jury trial for an Augusta County realtor accused of criminal construction fraud has been withdrawn at the request of her attorney.
Amy Argenbright, who owns a home construction company under the name A&CO 2002 LLC, is facing three felony grand jury indictments and is scheduled to appear in court on Monday, Dec. 22 at 2:30 p.m.
Augusta Circuit Court Judge Shannon Sherrill had originally scheduled a status hearing on Dec. 18, but Argenbright has since retained counsel, local defense attorney Thomas B. Weidner IV, and he was unavailable on the earlier date.
Some of the alleged victims of Argenbright who have been in contact with AFP saw that the jury trial, scheduled for Feb. 26-27, had been withdrawn on the online court system and worried that the proceedings may not be moving forward.
“Absolutely not,” Augusta County Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Caleb S. Kramer told AFP. “I’m moving full forward on these cases.”
The first indictment was for a case where the victim allegedly paid $366,000 for the construction of a single-family residence in eastern Augusta County, and the residence was not finished.
The two additional indictments were for:
- Hired to perform construction, removal, repair or improvement of a building and failing to do so.
- Failing to perform construction, removal, repair or improvement of a building.
While court documents show the amounts as more than $1,000, Kramer told AFP that one of the indictments is for a project valued similarly to the first charge, and the second is much less, “five figures rather than six.”
The website account for A&CO 2002 LLC appears to have been suspended.
ICYMI
- Augusta County realtor indicted on two additional construction fraud charges
- Two-day trial set for Augusta County realtor charged in $366K fraud case
- Augusta County: Prominent realtor arrested for alleged $366K construction fraud
The Commonwealth Attorney’s office is still evaluating additional indictments as more alleged victims have reached out to them. However, Kramer acknowledged that his focus is very narrow, and he can only seek charges for actions that are criminal, not civil.
“In this case, there’s a whole bunch going on civilly, and I have to very carefully carve out what I believe is criminal actions, and that’s a very narrow subset of all the wrongdoing that I think has gone on here.”
Argenbright and her companies, past and present, have numerous default judgements against them, something he referred to as “toe-dipping.”
“I think the well is quite deep there.”
Trial likely will come later in 2026 than originally scheduled
In addition to the status hearing date change, he said, he believes the defense will also need more time to prepare for trial and favor a bench trial over a jury trial.
It is likely, he said, that the trial will be pushed back to sometime beyond February.
“Discovery is voluminious,” Kramer said of a possible February trial date. “There’s no way he [her attorney] could actually go through it all and prepare an adequate defense, and I agree with him on that.”
Kramer said the case is “highly complex” and involves numerous financial records and contracts.
While contractor fraud is “rather common,” Kramer said he wants this court proceeding to set a precedent for other builders in the area. While a plea is always possible, he said, he likely wants a more severe result than the defense will be willing to agree to.
“One of my goals is, we want to make it very clear, this is not something that we kind of brush under the rug.”
“I think the best option here is deterrence. This type of thing will be followed up on, and it will have negative consequences, so you best not do it.
“This is going forward barring some sort of disaster, something which I can’t imagine. We will get a result one way or the other.”
Anyone who may be a victim of construction fraud involving Argenbright is asked to contact the Augusta County Sheriff’s Office at (540) 245-5333 or Kramer at [email protected].
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Crystal Graham
