Former Contractor to Pay over $100,000 in Restitution

By Linda Cicoira

A Franktown man was given a suspended 10-year sentence Monday in Northampton Circuit Court for embezzling thousands of dollars he accepted to remodel a Jamesville home three years ago.

Forty-seven-year-old Richard Arthur Brassfield Jr., a contractor from Wellington Neck Road, was also ordered to pay $102,740 in restitution.

He pleaded guilty in June to embezzlement 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.

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. Brassfield stopped coming to the site in December 2022 and never finished, despite receiving a letter demanding he return $37,000.

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.