Trial for former owners of Quincy pool and spa business pushed back again to December

QUINCY — A trial for the former owners of a Quincy business facing two theft charges has been pushed back again.

St. Louis attorney Justin Summary appeared by Zoom for a Tuesday morning motion hearing before Judge Tad Brenner in Adams County Circuit Court. Summary said his clients, Andy P. Reardon, 58, and Michelle M. Reardon, 52, of Spring Hill, Fla., were not in the courtroom for the hearing for health reasons.

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.

Brenner opened Tuesday’s hearing by saying he spoke Monday with Summary, who said he would not be ready for trial in October.

Summary then said he would be ready for trial in December. When Brenner asked Assistant State’s Attorney Brett Jansen if he objected, Jansen replied, “No objection, as long as we mark (the continuation) final. That way all parties know they will have to be ready.”

The December jury trial docket is scheduled to begin Dec. 7. A status hearing is scheduled for Nov. 12, with a pre-trial hearing scheduled for Nov. 22.

The Reardons 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 by the Hernando County Sheriff’s Department in Brooksville, Fla., on an Illinois warrant. Both 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.

An Adams County grand jury indicted the Reardons on Sept. 7 on both charges. Each count said the Reardons “knowingly obtained by deception control” over property — belonging to owner Melissa Drew on or about Nov. 22, 2021, in the first count and owners Stephen and Debra Kraus 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.