Brian Heath had court today. Very disappointing. 500 hours community service and 3 years probation. What i want to know is why the so called “investigation” was not investigated! Bonneville County looked at the tip of the iceberg. Why weren’t the victims of the husband and wife theft team contacted? When could we have let OUR voice be heard?
Det. Hillier has been on this case for over a year. He has stacks and stacks of documents proving Brian and Brandi are cons. Why is it that criminal courts can’t be intermingled with civil matters? Brian has numerous other crimes that are being ignored. And forgotten. Who helps the people? Brian Heath stated that all restitution has been paid on the NSF checks he wrote. But what about the contractors?
I know of 15-20 different contractors he jipped. We are told that it is not a criminal but civil matter and to take it to civil courts. Who has the motivation to retain an attorney when we know of his plans to file bankruptcy again. That’s inevitable! And it happened. Just got the discharge letter in the mail last week.
The prosecutor tried to let the judge know that Brian is NOT a trustworthy character and suggested that Brian get 4 years behind bars. He is not supposed to operate a business or even be a partner of one. Let’s just wait until Brandi puts it in her name. At least he cannot have a checking account for the rest of his life. LOL.
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Gato got runned over by Marcus many moons ago. Be ye daft, 2486? 
Let's have a new poll, alright, Joe?
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Here’s some background on the charges:
http://www.idahobusiness.net/archive.htm/2009/03/30/Idaho-Falls-contractor-wife-charged-with-theft
An Idaho Falls contractor and his wife have been charged with grand theft and other felonies.
Brian R. Heath, the owner of Kenetic Construction, is charged with four counts of grand theft and one count of issuing a check without funds, and Brandie T. Heath is charged with one felony count of grand theft and four felony counts of fraud for issuing bad checks.
Detectives with the Bonneville County sheriff’s office say the two wrote at least 68 bad checks totaling more than $53,000.
If convicted, Brian Heath faces up to 59 years in prison and Brandie Heath faces up to 26 years in prison.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Tuesday in 7th District Court.
Brian Heath faces up to 59 years in prison and gets some community service? Something seems wrong here…
Anonymous, thanks for sharing that. For people who have invested themselves in this story and have been following it down to a court date, no context is needed.
But for the clueless people like me who who are completely ignorant about this story, I was just going to request that the author of the post to update it with a brief background summary, or to link to a background article that he likes.
Thanks for filling in the blanks, or at least my blank.
Sorry about not filling in the blanks. I guess I figured that everyone knew. I have some additional background as well and am anxious for comments. I don’t know how it happened, but Brian was hired as a contractor on many properties around the area. Some of these areas include Jackson, WY Alpine, WY Idaho Falls and Island Park. He was NOT a registered or licensed contractor. We were one of the subs. In this economy, when someone asks us to work..we work..no questions asked. We trusted him. That won’t happen again! Anyway, the homeowners whom hired him paid him. Instead of paying all of us, he spent the money. He leased a home in Blackhawk Subd and bought a new truck, new four wheelers, new snow machines, a camper, boat, electronics and furniture to name a few. With our money! When I liened the properties (which is not free) I found out that many other subs were owed money. I contacted a dozen or more that he had stiffed by him. In court he was just charged with writing bad checks, he apparently paid all $43,000 back. What what the judge didn’t understand is that he owed nearly 1 million dollars to us sub contractors..some as far away as Colorado! But sub contractors have to file a civil suit to get any retribution. We already knew of his intentions to file bankrupty. And attorneys are spendy. To top that off, everytime we tried to contact him or Brandie about our money, they called the police and threatened to press harrassment charges on us! I have no faith in the justice system. Where do we go from here? Can anything be done?
This is a letter that was sent to my buddy way back when this all started. It was written by a detective. Its pretty telling, sucks that he got away with a “slap on the wrist.”
I began investigating Brian Heath back in December 2007. I have been dealing with reports on the Heaths for several months. I am very frustrated with this whole situation and I will explain why. There is a very fine line between issues in the business world of things on whether or not they are a criminal matter or declared a civil matter. I KNOW WITHOUT A DOUBT THAT BRIAN AND BRANDIE HEATH ARE CRIMINALS!!! It has taken me 17 months to bring criminal charges against them because of the civil hang ups. In the legal system in order for me to bring a charge against someone like Brian Heath for not paying you for your services I have to be able to prove that Brian never intented to pay you in the first place. I have to prove that at the exact time Brian hired you, that he had no intention of paying you ever which is very difficult to do I assure you. I have to show a common scheme between multple victims and show that they were done in the same manner in order to prove that he was doing business criminally and that this was not a civil matter.
Civilly Brian can say that he was a victim of bad business. That he ran his business poorly and that he meant to pay everyone and never meant to screw anyone out of a dime. He can say that he made some bad business decisions which caused him to go under financially as a business and that is why he could not pay you. He can say that other people screwed him and that is why he did not have the money to pay you. He then says that he is broke, files bankrupcy, and everyone gets screwed. Now I realize that to you and I it is clear that this is not the case. However, when it goes into a criminal court room and before a jury, things become not so clear. Juries do strange things and let people off on the smallest detail. In a trial Brian can also say that you did not do work as you were hired to do, that you never finished the work agreed upon, or that he had to hire someone else to fix your work which cost him money therefore proving that it was a civil matter and that you owe him money. This sounds rediculous but it happens and is a common defense in cases like these and juries buy off on it.
I worked on another case similar to this one in 2007. I brought this similar case to the courts and I could not get charges filed on that case. The fine print in the criminal code book kept the state from filing charges against this other individual. Because of this I have been very cautious as to how I have investigated and dealt wtih the HEATH investigation. I did not want to see the same thing happen in this case as the other one similar to it.
I have literally invested hundreds upon hundreds of hours into investigating the Heaths. I was finally able to charge Brian with check fraud as you know a month ago. This was not as easy as you would think. Brian has done a good job at going behind himself and everytime someone threatens to charge him or call the cops he had taken care of things “CHECK WISE” and kept himself out of trouble and under the radar. I have known of these cases for quite some time. It took several cases in order for me to bring a charge against Brian Heath. So that you know at the advise of his attorney I am sure, Brian has managed to clear up and pay all of the money to the people he wrote checks to over the last two weeks. Where he came up with the money I don’t know. Usually in a case like this charges are dropped because the checks are taken care of and the state does not contunue with charges. I am sure that is what Brians attorney was hoping for however things did not work out as they hoped and even though he has come up with monery and paid all the bad checks off he has still not paid people like yourself therefore we are NOT going to drop the charges against him. Even if he had paid everyone off like yourself and all victims were made good, we would not even think of dropping charges against Brain because he needs to go to jail and for the sake of justice and society as a whole we can’t afford to let him get a “slap on the wrist” anymore.
These charges that he is currently facing I can assure you are not going to go away. Brian will have to plead guilty to atleast 4 or 5 felony charges other wise the prosecutors office and I will be taking him to trial on all felony counts which I assure you the state will win more than 5 felony counts against Brian Heath and his attorney knows that. If you were to do your homework you would see and understand that in a check fraud charge like Brians it is common for someone to get a bond set at only a few thousand dollars and sometimes $10,000 or $20,000 dollars if they are really big cases. I personally fought and explained to the judge Brians character and history and was able to get a $500,000.00 bond set against him when I arrested him. This bond is unheard of in a case like this and it shocked everyone including myself that I was able to get that high of a bond at the time of arrest. $500,000.00 bonds are set when people are charged with crimes like Murder not check fraud.
The prosecutors office and I were both present when he had what is called a bond reduction hearing several weeks after he was put in jail on my charges. We fought hard to keep his bond high and not lowered. The judge who heard the hearing decided to reduce the bond to $25,000.00 against our will. I have no control over the judge and his rulings and can not be held acountible or at fault for the judges actions and decisions.
Most of the cases against Brain Heath are not even in Bonneville County however I have still taken the information in, compiled a case against him and notified other agencies of his behaviors so that they can charge him criminally and without my information and case they would not be able to do so. I can assure you that no other detective in my agency let alone any other agency around would have taken the time to do this or taken the time to go as far as I have because these cases occurred outside my jurisdiction and I have no authority or obligation to investigate those cases what so ever. However, having recognized what kind of person Brian is I have still done so and allowed other cases on my case load to be put off and suffer in order for Brain to be stopped.
Alone each case like yours is considered a civil matter NOT CRIMINAL if it stands by itself. However, together with a list of all the victims and all the people who have been deceived by the Heaths, I believe that we can charge him criminally for his actions and not allow him to skate on by and push this into the civil arena.
I know better then anyone else how much he has hurt and screwed people out of honest money owed to them. I truly simpathize with you and know how detrimental loosing the money you have lost from the Heaths must have done to you.
You stated that you were outraged along with many others in the community that Brain was released with a low bail. I too was outraged and fought hard not to let that happen. I urge you to contact the prosecutors office. I urge you to talk to the news media and let your story be heard. I would suggest however that you get your facts straight about me and the Bonneville County Sheriff Office/Prosecutors office so that you do not make yourself look like a fool in front of the media If you do let your story be heard then maybe when it comes time for sentancing the judge will have no reason or excuse to let Brian and Brandie off so easily.
You are absolutely right when you said “He will not stop.” I believe that if he is not already doing it again right now that he is out of jail then he will be comitting the same acts again shortly and will make several other people victims like yourself. I also believe that the only way he is going to stop is if he goes to jail and stays there. People like Brian Heath need to go to jail and not ever get out!
Brian has not got a slap on the hand just yet. He is out on bail and currently going through the legal process. As far as society is concerned he is innocent until proven guilty and so we can not jump to conclusions just yet that he will get off with only a slap on the hand. Our country, government, and the consitution of the United States of America give him the right to a fair trial, a right to counsel, and a right to be innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. I ask that you not to forget that. Even people like OJ Simpson have rights and even OJ Simpson who was guilty of murder and everyone knew it got off and was aquitted of MURDER! We can not be quick to say that Brian will be found guilty or that he will get off easy. We can only wait and see what happens and then go from there.
So that you are aware this is NOT the second time Brian has committed fraud. He has done others before. He got his slap on the hand a while back and got a misdemeanor conviction and got off easy. Brandie also was convicted of check fraud but got a slap on the wrist and got her charge lowered to a misdemenor and got off easy. Brian has been doing this for years and I will do everything in my power to see that justice is brought against him and he pays for the crimes that he has comitted. You need to understand that I investigate the crime and then turn it over to the prosecutor to review. The prosecutors office then will determine if they are going to file charges, and if they do file charges they make the decision on what charges are going to be filed and what plea agreements will be made. If the person is found guilty then the suspects fate is out of all our hands and it now is up to a judge to decide what punishment a person will receive and whether or not he will have the book thrown at him or get a “slap on the wrist.”
If you want to blame someone then blame our judicial system, blame our government, and blame the judges for the sentances they give out not the police who investigate them or the prosecutors who argue the cases in court and fight for justice!
Unbelievable. Since moving here, I have a real sour taste in my mouth for how people like the Heath’s are “punished”. He is probably sitting with bunch of friends right now, laughing and cracking open a case of beer, toasting to a pathetic legal system. Yep, probably wrote a bad check for the beer too…
I’d like to think that people are given ’slap on the wrist’ sentences so they can work and pay restitution instead of becoming rotting meat in prison.
I also want to believe in unicorns and aliens… it’s my world, and I like it here.
Thank you for posting the letter from Officer Hiller. I am grateful for officers like him who are willing to fight for our rights as victims of the Heaths. My heart aches for him at this time as I know he is frustrated. I do know he will continue to investigate Brian and Brandie and will be HAPPY to bring charges against them again as soon as they mess up. Rest assured… they will mess up!
Brian has always been too stupid to know who stupid he is. The advantage we have now is he does have the sentence hanging over him. If he violates his probation in the slightest he is gone. So watch him like a hawk and report any minor evidence you see.
Now.. as I know Miss Brandie will be reading this and anxious to put forth her two cents… all I can say to you is again, watch your back. Just as you got a slap on the wrist, we too will get a slap on the wrist when you find yourself in a dark alley having the holy s.. beat out of you. It is coming. I promise you. You just will never know when. It is all in timing. It is all in the timing. All your phone calls, letters, emails, threats, lies are not going to save you then.
Mr Moderator: I believe that comment 7 is completely out of line by threatening this Brandie person with bodily harm. (” Just as you got a slap on the wrist, we too will get a slap on the wrist when you find yourself in a dark alley having the holy s.. beat out of you. It is coming. I promise you. You just will never know when.”)
Completely uncalled for and should be removed immediately.
It’s people like this poster that are no better than the people their chastizing.
Mr. Moderator:
Remove the comment if you wish. I agree with the comment and think they have the right to post. People like Brandie are the reason why people like that are backed into a corner. The law protects the criminals. I personally have lost all faith in the system. This story is a joke. Brandie and Brian can rot for all I care.
I think there is a BIG difference between a “right to post” and basically telling someone to watch their back b/c you are going to get them. Yeah, a major difference. I agree with the request to censor that one a little. I’m sure many people are rightfully angry at them, and I would be too. But the post was immature and over the top.