Minister: I have no bitterness, but car dealer must be punished

The 63-count indictment alleges a complex web of fraud.

By PETER H. MILLIKEN

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

BOARDMAN — A minister listed as a theft victim in the automobile dealing fraud indictment against Buddy Harvey said that he can forgive the former Boardman car dealer but that the dealer should be forced to make restitution to victims by selling his rental properties and other assets.

“Christians need to hate the sin and not the sinner,” said the Rev. Gregory O’Dell, associate pastor at Evangel Baptist Church. The Rev. Mr. O’Dell said he could forgive Harvey and have compassion for him.

“I can have righteous anger for something that was wrong but I’m not going to bear bitterness in my heart and animosity, because that only hurts me and it hurts my family and my ministry,” he said.

However, Mr. O’Dell added: “You do something wrong and you’ve got to pay the consequences. You don’t get off. Things need to be made right. A crime was committed against me and a lot of other people. ... If the court says that there’s jail time on this, then so be it.’’

Mr. O’Dell also urged the alleged victims in this case to seek restitution by filing lawsuits in small claims court, but not to let the matter interfere with their holiday observances.

“Appreciate what you do have and consider yourself fortunate to have the blessings that you do have, and let go of any bitterness and focus on loving your families and bringing joy and peace that the Christmas season represents,” Mr. O’Dell advised victims.

Buddy Harvey, 41, of Canton, and his brother, Gregory A. Harvey, 36, of Berlin Center, were named as defendants in a 63-count indictment returned Dec. 6 by a Mahoning County grand jury. Mr. O’Dell said all of his dealings were with Buddy Harvey.

Buddy Harvey is charged with 43 theft counts, 15 title offenses, three records-tampering counts and one count each of defrauding creditors and passing bad checks. Gregory Harvey is charged with 27 theft counts, one count of tampering with records and 12 title offenses.

Both defendants have pleaded innocent in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. Buddy Harvey is free on a $3,000 cash bond; and Gregory Harvey is free on his own recognizance.

The Harveys leased cars and sold new and used cars. The total fraud was in hundreds of thousands of dollars, said Robert Bush, chief of the criminal division of the county prosecutor’s office. Bush estimated that there are more than 60 victims in this case.

When he entered an innocent plea to all charges on behalf of Buddy Harvey on Dec. 12, Atty. J. Gerald Ingram said he and his client looked forward to the opportunity to present a defense against the allegations. However, Ingram said Thursday that he wasn’t yet familiar enough with the indictment to answer specific questions concerning the theft count in which Mr. O’Dell is named as the victim.

Mr. O’Dell bought a 2000 Chevrolet Impala from the Harv’s Cars dealership for $6,850 in cash March 14, 2006, returning it to Harv’s for transmission work in May of that year, police reports said.

Shortly before the 30-day temporary tags expired, Mr. O’Dell said he inquired of Buddy Harvey as to when he could receive a title and acquire permanent license plates for the Impala. Mr. O’Dell said he followed Harvey’s advice to replace the temporary tags with plates that had been removed from a vehicle Mr. O’Dell had previously owned.

While the Impala was in the shop for the repairs Harvey promised to pay for, Harvey provided two loaner vehicles to Mr. O’Dell, first a pickup truck for a week and later a 2002 Mercury Mountaineer sport utility vehicle with dealer plates for about a month, O’Dell said.

When Mr. Odell inquired about the status of the work on the Impala, Harvey told him the work would be delayed because the mechanic would have to replace the transmission instead of rebuilding it.

While the Impala was in the shop, a credit union repossessed it because Harvey didn’t make the loan payments he had promised to make on the outstanding loan for the man who traded in the Impala, police reports said.

On the day Harvey had told him the Impala would be ready for pickup with a title and warranty, Mr. O’Dell recalled he telephoned Boardman police after finding Harv’s Cars closed and tow trucks repossessing cars in its parking lot.

O’Dell then recalled receiving a telephone call from a lending institution several days later saying it would have to repossess the Mountaineer because the loan on it hadn’t been paid off. He said he told the lender it could repossess that SUV from the street in front of his Boardman residence. The SUV was repossessed by a credit union in July 2006, police said.

After that repossession, a parishioner gave Mr. O’Dell a van to drive. Months later, Mr. O’Dell’s insurance company reimbursed him for his Impala payment as a stolen car claim and Mr. O’Dell used that money toward purchase of a 2003 Impala this past summer.

Mr. O’Dell said Buddy Harvey would engage him in conversation about Mr. O’Dell’s family and church. Mr. O’Dell blamed Harvey for causing him great inconvenience at a time when his 10-year-old daughter was undergoing almost a year of chemotherapy, followed by six weeks of daily radiation treatments in Cleveland. “We were pretty tired. Our medical bills were mounting,” Mr. O’Dell said.

However, Mr. O’Dell said he realized that many other alleged victims in the Harv’s Cars case suffered greater losses for which they were not compensated by insurance.

“He has really spun a huge web of deceit with a lot of people,” Mr. O’Dell said.