Former Pool Company Owner Set For Trial

A person is facing charges in both Baxter and Marion Counties stemming from her time as owner of a pool company.

The complete story below is from KTLO:

The former owner of a local swimming pool construction company appeared in Baxter County Circuit Court Monday.
Forty-two-year-old Jessica Ruth Trivitt of Mountain Home, who was formerly listed as the owner of Southern Pool Company, has three theft of property cases filed against her in Baxter County and one in Marion.

The Baxter County cases are set for trial next month. One of Trivitt’s attorneys,, Mack Ivy of Benton, appeared with his client Monday. He told the court he had recently filed six motions in the cases. The motions were basically routine.

It is alleged in each case that victims paid Trivitt thousands of dollars to construct swimming pools on their property and received little, if anything, in return.

Down payments in the three Baxter County cases totaled about $130,000. In each case, no work was ever started and no equipment or materials were brought to the sites, according to court records.

Trivitt has also filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. An on-line bankruptcy liquidation auction to dispose of company assets was held this summer. The auction was conducted by Block Auction Company of Springdale under authority of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Arkansas.

In records maintained by the Arkansas State Secretary of State’s Office, Southern Pool Company of Mountain Home, LLC, shows Jessica Trivitt as the “incorporator/organizer.” The status of the business is shown as “dissolved.”

The former owner of Splash Pools and Spas, forerunner to Southern Pools, 61-year-old John N. Dunn, is also accused of taking money from customers but doing little or none of the promised work.

A theft of property charge filed against Dunn this year in Marion County mirrors the ones filed against Trivitt in Marion and Baxter.

In Marion County, Dunn is accused of taking a customer’s check for $43,200 to install a fiberglass swimming pool at a Bull Shoals residence and doing no work.

According to the probable cause affidavit, the customer called the Marion County Sheriff’s office at one point to report that he had learned that Dunn had “fled” to Cozumel Mexico.

Court records show that Dunn had told customers at various times that he was in Mexico, or that he would return from Mexico to take care of issues that had arisen.

Dunn has been charged with theft of property and is free on $50,000 bond.

Records show that Trivitt and Dunn were both involved in Splash’s Pool and Spa, LLC. Trivitt was once listed as manager of Splash’s Pool and Spa in Mountain Home at a time when the business was reportedly owned by Dunn.

Records show she purchased the business from him sometime in early 2019 and changed the name to Southern Pool Company.

In a civil suit filed against the business by a Viola couple, it is reported the victims went to the company’s office after hearing the business was for sale to find out if a change of ownership would impact the pool installation at their property.

According to court records, the couple spoke with Trivitt, believing at the time she was the manager of the company.

Trivitt is alleged to have told the customers she had purchased the business from Dunn and that she would be the point-of-contact in the future.

Dunn was jailed in Marion County March 16 after apparently returning from Cozumel Mexico for taking money from a customer and failing to do any work on a pool project.

The latest criminal case opened on Trivitt is also in Marion County. It is alleged that she took more than $113,200 in advance payments from a customer in Bull Shoals on a contract to construct a 16×40 foot pool along with other features. The contract, which was signed in mid-June last year, set the price of the project at almost $127,000.

Work did begin and the pool and spa were set in place, then the installation of plumbing was started. The work then stopped and never started again.

The property owner told investigators he had several talks with Trivitt to try and get the project back on track, but was given excuses, including a claim that critical parts were on backorder.

Despite the property owner’s efforts, work never resumed. According to the probable cause affidavit, the pool is now full of rain water and holes were left in the backyard along with sections of exposed pipes.

The property owners contracted with another pool company to finish the work and to furnish some items that were to be provided by Trivitt’s company under the original contract, such as an $18,000 pool cover.

According to the probable cause affidavit, the total cost to complete work on the pool project was nearly $73,000.

In another case, filed in early February , Trivitt is charged with accepting $22,500 as a down payment on a pool project at a home in Midway. The contract was finalized April 21 last year, but when the victim made a report to the Baxter County Sheriff’s office about a month later, no work had been done and no equipment or materials had been delivered to the site.

On January 9, a homeowner in Norfork contacted the sheriff’s office and reported he had signed a contract with Trivitt/Southern Pool Company to construct an in-ground swimming pool on his property. The agreed price was $113,885 with a down payment of almost $57,000.

Since the contract was signed August 4 last year and the down payment made, no work had been done and no equipment or material had been delivered to the site.

The victim said he had made several attempts to contract Trivitt but had only gotten text messages containing excuses as to why no work had been done.

Another case currently open on Trivitt/Southern Pool Company stems from the same situation as others that have been filed. The owner of a residence in Briarcliff told police he had signed a contract to construct an in-ground pool on his property in late July last year.

He said the agreed price was to be about $98,300 with a $50,000 down payment. He said he gave a check for the down payment to Trivitt July 22 last year. Investigators say the check was deposited into the Southern Pool account the same day.

The owner of the Briarcliff property said he made more than a dozen attempts to reach Trivitt. His calls went unanswered. He said he did manage to make personal contact with Trivitt once but received no satisfactory answers as to what was delaying the project.

The three Baxter County cases are set to be tried in mid-January next year.

In a civil suit, a company in Brooklyn, New York, IRM Ventures Capital, LLC, obtained a judgment against Splash’s Pools and Spa and Trivitt for almost $24,400 in late April 2021.

The New York judgment was registered in Baxter County December 2022. Court records show that the matter was dropped after Trivitt’s bankruptcy filing.

The bankruptcy filing will have no effect on the criminal cases filed against Trivitt. Prosecutor David Ethredge told KTLO, Classic Hits and The Boot News that Trivitt could not discharge any victim restitution she could be ordered to pay as part of her criminal cases.