Contractor pleads guilty to embezzlement

By Linda Cicoira

A Franktown man pleaded guilty Monday in Northampton Circuit Court to embezzling thousands of dollars he had accepted to remodel a Jamesville home in 2022.

Forty-seven-year-old Richard Arthur Brassfield Jr., a contractor from Wellington Neck Road, entered the plea in exchange for Commonwealth’s Attorney Jack Thornton’s offer not to prosecute him on five other charges.

Those included two counts of construction fraud, two counts of obtaining money by false pretenses, and another count of embezzlement.

The maximum sentence for the initial offense was 10 years in prison and a $2,500 fine.

According to evidence, Margaret and Jim Cox paid Brassfield in advance for the Jamesville job in March 2022. Thornton said the materials were delivered, and some work was performed. But Brassfield stopped coming to the site in December 2022 and never finished, despite receiving a letter demanding he return $37,000.

A Cape Charles couple was allegedly owed $50,000 in a similar deal that was included in a charge that wasn’t brought to trial.

The plea agreement called for Brassfield to get a 10-year suspended sentence with three years of supervised probation and three years of good behavior. He would be prohibited from getting a permit for such work for five years. A restitution hearing was discussed, but a date was not set. A presentence report was ordered. Sentencing was scheduled for Sept. 15.