CINCINNATI (WXIX) - Newtown business owner Doug Evans faces contempt charges “for failing to comply with a court-ordered plan to remove waste and debris that he illegally discarded on one of his company properties,” Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced Tuesday.
Yost wants a Hamilton County Common Pleas judge to impose the most stringent penalties possible against Evans, including a 30-day jail term and supplementary fines.
“Compliance is not optional,” Yost said in a news release. “Doug Evans needs to clean up the community menace he created or face the consequences.”
The contempt charges stem from a March 2021 lawsuit filed by the Attorney General against Evans and several of his companies including Evans Landscaping “for unlawfully burying wastes, open-dumping scrap tires, and illegally disposing of construction and demolition debris,” the news release says.
The violations spanned several years and three sites owned by Evans: Broadwell, Mount Carmel and Round Bottom, court records show.
FOX19 NOW is reaching out to Evans and his legal and communications team for comment.
We will update this story once we hear back.
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As part of a consent order negotiated in September 2022 , Evans agreed to pay a civil penalty of $550,000 and clean up the sites according to a plan issued by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and the Hamilton County Public Health District.
The removal plan requires him to submit weekly progress reports detailing his waste-removal activities.
Evans contested certain technical aspects of the plan, and the Ohio EPA and county health district provided clarifications in writing, according to the attorney general’s office.
Excavation has begun at the Broadwell site, but Evans stopped removing debris from that location, leaving it lying on the ground. He also has failed to submit the mandatory progress reports, Yost says.
Hamilton County issued a violation notice earlier this month, on Aug. 17, warning Evans that the state is likely to take further legal action if he did not comply within seven days.
Yost says the contempt charge is designed to ensure that Evans meets the plan’s schedule – which, according to an engineer hired by Evans, is feasible by Dec. 31.
This is the latest legal issue for Evans.
He was released early from a federal prison in late 2021 after serving just six of his total 21-month sentence for minority contracting fraud.
A federal jury determined Evans used a shell company to win millions in minority and small business demolition contracts from the state and city of Cincinnati.
Evans tried to overturn his conviction in the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals but lost.
He was ordered to pay a $50,000 fine, and his company also was ordered to pay a $500,000 fine.
Half the money will be donated to minority companies, federal court records show.
Evans Landscaping owner sentenced in minority contracting fraud case
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