Former owner of Quincy business gets theft charges dropped after making $12,000 in restitution
QUINCY — Andy P. Reardon, the former owner of Backyard Adventures Pools and Spas LLC, had theft charges dropped last week after he paid $12,000 to the Adams County Circuit Clerk, who will forward the payment to the aggrieved parties.
Reardon was supposed to make the payments in May, but was granted extra time by the courts after his wife, Michelle Reardon, who was also facing charges until she became ill, passed away in April.
Reardon agreed to pay a total of $12,000 to the plaintiffs — Melissa Drew and Stephen and Debra Kraus — and now the case has been dismissed.
The Reardons were charged with two counts of theft by deception — one for between $10,000 and $100,000, a Class 2 felony punishable for between three and seven years in the Illinois Department of Corrections, and one for between $500 and $10,000, a Class 3 felony punishable for between two and five years in prison.
The Reardons previously owned Backyard Adventures Pools and Spas LLC, 1800 Broadway, in Quincy. A Dec. 8, 2021, story in Muddy River News detailed multiple complaints filed by dissatisfied customers against the business for shoddy work installing pools and spas.
The Reardons were arrested and booked in the early morning hours of Sept. 27, 2023 by the Hernando County Sheriff’s Department in Brooksville, Fla., on an Illinois warrant.
An Adams County grand jury indicted the Reardons on Sept. 7, 2024, on both charges. Each count said the Reardons “knowingly obtained by deception control” over property — belonging to Drew on or about Nov. 22, 2021, in the first count and the Krauses on or about Dec. 1, 2021, in the second count. The Reardons allegedly took money from Drew and the Krauses and deceived them about what they were supposed to get.
The case was set to go to trial in August, but Summary said at a July 9 hearing he was unprepared because he was waiting on four years of bank records. Brenner moved the case to the October jury trial docket, and it was moved again to December before Larson put it on the February docket.
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