A pole barn contractor who defrauded consumers of more than $400,000 has been sentenced to at least 17 years in prison after being convicted of 47 felony counts, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced this week..
This month, Marion resident Ryan C. Needels, owner of Clear View Construction, went to trial in Delaware County Common Pleas Court on 47 felony counts co
ntained in an indictment dating from August 2023. Needels ran a long-term scheme in which he accepted large payments for pole barns or other construction projects but instead stole victim’s money.
“Forty-seven convictions speak for themselves,” Yost said. “Victims were heard and justice was served.”
Judge Richard Frye, who heard the case on assignment, took testimony from 19 victims and considered victim-impact statements from many of them a
t sentencing. The judge ordered Needels to serve 17 to 22 years in prison and pay $448,000 in restitution, describing him as a “predator” who carried out a pervasive and prolonged scheme to defraud his victims.
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The charges included engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, telecommunications fraud, seven counts of money laundering and 38 counts of theft. Needels
previously entered a guilty plea to some of the counts in the indictment, that plea was appealed and the convictions were vacated.
Schoening’s argument in the appeal “ignores the basic principle that ‘insurance which covers the full cost of repair without deduction for assured depreciatio
n’ demands a higher premium, as it “force[s] [the insurer] to pay for erecting what is in effect a new building,'” the court wrote, quoting from previous federal court decisions and a treatise on the issue.
While insurance companies have often lost appeals due to unclear or ambiguous policy language, that was not the case here. The commercial policies for Schoening make it clear that the policyholder may not claim a payment without deduction for depreciation, the court noted.
