PARMA, Ohio — A local pool contractor said he did nothing wrong — this came after the News 5 Investigators recently reported on several complaints against him. Now, we’re following through as the man defended his business, Lake Erie Pools, and more developments have emerged.
Austin Reale appeared in Parma Municipal Court to answer a lawsuit filed by Lakisha Young and her husband. You might remember our investigation into multiple people saying Reale’s business cost them money.
In court, Young said a different company examined why her pool leaked.
“Come to find out that they determined that Austin did install our liner incorrectly,” she told the magistrate.
Reale claimed the leak came much later than what Young says.
“There’s no expectation of a warranty from my workmanship because I didn’t sign a contract or anything with them,” said Reale.
After court, Reale initially did not want to answer questions.
“What do you have to say about some of these claims against you?” we asked.
“Uh... just no comment,” Reale said.
Our initial investigation showed Bob Paulo filed a police report saying Reale took his $5,000 deposit and never delivered his pool. Police arrested Reale, and he now faces felony theft charges.
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Reale told us Paulo doesn’t understand his business and got impatient. “(He) cursed me out over his pool. You go to the back of the line, sir,” Reale said. “I had no ill intentions.”
“We do have a text message from you that says, 'I don’t want to do business with you anymore. Your pool will be dropped off,'” we told Reale.
“Exactly,” said Reale.
“Well, that’s different than putting him to the back of the line. You were saying you don’t want to do business with him anymore,” we said.
“Yeah,” said Reale.
“Those two don’t match, so I’m just wondering which one is true?” we said.
“I don’t know. It was just… It was just a heated thing between me and him,” Reale said.
He told us he’ll pay back Paulo minus Reale’s expenses on the job. He said Paulo’s case is more for the civil courts, as is the lawsuit involving Young.
“This is another civil matter. They’re trying to get something for free out of me,” said Reale.
“He thought he could just make up some more lies to get away with it, but in the end, I think we proved our case,” said Young.
“He tried to make it sound like we tried to paint him as a bad person when we reached out to him multiple times and then he didn’t want to reach back out to us,” said Young’s husband, Antoine McGlothin.
The magistrate will decide the case soon.
