New theft charges filed against ex-youth baseball leader

Ryan Rhoads, who drove a Tacoma youth baseball league to financial ruin and spent money from players’ parents on massages and utility bills, is in trouble again.

King County prosecutors charged Rhoads on Feb. 27 with three counts of first-degree theft, following a lengthy investigation by Bellevue police. Rhoads, 44, was arraigned last week and entered a plea of not guilty.

Charging documents state that Rhoads, a Gig Harbor resident, served as a contractor for construction projects in Seattle and King County, accepted at least $80,000 for framing work, hired subcontractors to perform it, and didn’t pay them.

Rhoads used the money to cover personal expenses, according to records compiled by Bellevue Police Det. James Brack.

The same records indicate that Rhoads knew he was running a scam and working for a contractor based in Washington and Texas who he said told him, “not to hire white people, but to hire Mexicans, use them and work off their backs, and when they finish their work, don’t pay them.” The statement appears in an affidavit signed under oath by a King County development company manager who belatedly discovered the scam after confronting Rhoads.

Some incidents described in the charges date to August and September 2014, when Rhoads faced active charges in Pierce County of second degree theft and unlawful check-writing.

He was out on bail on those charges when he received payments for the framing work and hired the subcontractors who went unpaid. Conditions of his release included an order to follow the law.

Det. Brack’s statement in charging papers refers to The News Tribune’s account of Rhoads’ defunct Pioneer Pony Baseball league, which folded in 2013 amid accusations of mismanagement and financial misdealing by Rhoads. A Pierce County deputy prosecutor described it as “a Ponzi scheme on a youth baseball league.”

Brack discovered the story after he received a complaint in November 2014 from a contractor who reported the framing scam. Additional research led Brack to the underlying investigation compiled by Tacoma Police Det. Elizabeth Schieferdecker, who had delved into Rhoads’ financial troubles over the previous decade and found associated debts of at least $768,000.

Building on the prior case, Brack sought records from the state Employment Security Department. They showed Rhoads reported no income from January 2012 through the summer of 2014. Additional state records led him to a company called Turn Key Construction, with addresses in Seattle, Tacoma, Portland and Tumwater.

The records revealed that Turn Key, listed in state records with several similar names and slightly varied spellings, had 14 separate complaints filed against it for unpaid wages. Thomas Mickel and Becky Hanthaley, the principal parties associated with Turn Key in state records, have since relocated to Texas, Brack said. Their companies are the subject of multiple state complaints and lawsuits in King County for unpaid debts.

While Rhoads has been charged, Mickel and Hanthaley, now out of state, have not. Brack said the reasons are complicated, and “it looks like Mickel and Hanthaley will not face criminal consequences unless something else develops.”

Rhoads served as the in-person go-between for Turn Key in Washington, accepting construction jobs and up-front payments while promising to hire laborers to perform related work, the records state.

Rhoads deposited checks into an expense account he used to pay for living expenses such as gas, meals and phone bills, earning roughly $2,000 per week — but the money never went to subcontractors. In several cases, the customers who hired Rhoads and paid him were forced to provide new payments to individual subcontractors for work performed, in essence doubling their costs.

An improvement project at Camp Parsons, a Boy Scouts-affiliated facility on the Olympic Peninsula, led to losses of $50,000 in 2014-15 for one subcontractor and his employees, according to records Brack uncovered. Witnesses described Rhoads as “the main guy” who handled dealings in person and received checks intended to pay for improvements.

As in other examples cited in records, the money didn’t go to the people who performed the work.

“There is no record that any of the funds were used for the sole intended purpose of paying labor supplied by Rhoads as agreed,” Brack wrote in his report. “When Rhoads was repeatedly confronted (by customers and subcontractors) about nonpayment, Rhoads provided lies and excuses.”

In December 2015, Brack interviewed Rhoads in the Pierce County Jail, where he was serving a six-month sentence following his conviction on the local theft charges.

Rhoads said all decisions involving Turn Key were made by Mickel or Hanthaley (a disputed point in records), and that he knew from the beginning that subcontractors weren’t getting paid. Brack noted that despite those stated misgivings, Rhoads continued to hire laborers and subcontractors for new projects.

“Rhoads knowingly, intentionally, and repeatedly over at least ten months participated in the Turn Key theft/fraud scheme,” Brack wrote.

The next court date for Rhoads, a case-scheduling hearing, is set for April 20 in King County Superior Court, with a tentative trial date in July.

This story was originally published April 2, 2017 at 9:00 AM with the headline "New theft charges filed against ex-youth baseball leader."