Was Landscaper Afraid to Finish the Job? | Part 1

Jose says Alisha and Roderick hired him for a backyard remodel, but he never finished the work because things got tense. #HotBench

Mr. Gonzalez, the defendant was referred to me. Around June 18, we met for a consultation. Met in my backyard. He took pictures, walked in my backyard. And he came up with a figure that he can complete everything in my backyard for $20,000. And he prepared a contract is your exhibit. Exhibit A.

It’s several pages of a contract, which details the work that he was to do for you. Yes. But you say there came a point in time when you were not satisfied with the pace of the work nor are the quality of the work. In particular, I think, you said you discovered that he

Was using plastic weed barrier. Yes. Rather than a fabric. And you said that this was inappropriate. Yes. We had talked and we agreed that he would use, like, a black mesh weed fabric, which is common in landscaping. I expressed what I wanted from him. Did you specifically tell him that prior

To signing the contract? Yes. Is that correct? That’s totally incorrect, sir. Tell us why? The conversation was that you have an option, depending what area you’re going to landscape. It depends on what area, what you’re doing, what type of suppressor you’re going to use because that slope is huge,

The mesh, the black fabric, they come in 6 foot rolls. But I explained to him that I’ve been doing this for 25 years. We cannot put these 6 foot rolls. Maybe it’s going to be about 10 rolls. And that’s going to leave more space for grass and weeds to come through.

So I explained to him that it’s better if you use large plastic. But the plaintiff claims that the plastic would essentially suffocate the ground underneath and cause more problems. Is that the way it works? That’s the exact purpose of this is to suffocate the grass or anything else that’s

Coming out except the plants. The plants have a cut out area. They’re breathing. They’re fine. This is a photograph of the slope. This is after you finished the work. This is the day that he wanted me to remove all the rock down because he’s telling me that this is the incorrect painters

Plastic, that he keeps calling it. And it’s not painters plastic. At this point, that’s after I removed about 20 tons of dirt and got it ready. Before we got to this phase, it took about maybe four weeks to get to this phase right here.

And now you wanted me to remove all the rock, all the plastic because now he wanted me to put cinder up there. And your contract– No. What we’ve read here does not provide– There is no cinder. I don’t know how to do that. I don’t price anything I don’t get involved with.

That’s something you would need a crane or something– Well, you said that the plaintiff’s behavior was such that you eventually went to the police. Yes. At the last day. Tell us what caused you to go to the police. He insisted that I put in the drip line now.

And we’re not ready at that point. It’s an order of operation that this has to go in. MICHAEL: So your allegation is that he micromanaged it. Oh, he stepped in. And he wanted to run the show. And everything was changes. From the rocks, to the drip line,

To the constant disrespect to my kids and myself. How did he disrespect your children? We have video, if you want to jump into that one. Yes. I’d like to see that. Go to the video. It’s– MICHAEL: What date did this happen? That was the final day, July 26 at 4:23 PM.

You were right in the middle of fulfilling your responsibilities– JOSE: Yes, sir. According to you. During this period, my grandfather had passed away. And I still– because these guys, I highly trained. They’ve been landscapers since diapers. And they were going back and making sure the job kept going. So in this point–

Let’s see what happened? Yes. We spent about 200. You spent about $200. It’s been like– JOSE: He’s talking to somebody. I don’t know who he’s talking to. You brought some [bleep] plastic and some [bleep] dirt. Right there. I got your money, sir. You don’t pay me. He pulls his fingers, Yes, we do.

Yes, sir. My kids are running out of there. We ran out of there. I had to get a police officer to get my tools back because I was terrified. You have another video for us? It’s just a progress of ongoing of the jobs. Yeah. The water leaks, all the grass,

All this is not acknowledged. All this– none of this. He wants the whole $10,000 on the spot. ALISHA: All those piles of dirt there were left at our house. They are in my trailer. I got them in my trailer. RODERICK: No you did not. ALISHA: They were left at our house.

We have pictures of those left at our house. All right. We’re not going to recreate the incident. OK? First of all, your behavior, you’re cursing at him. And there is certainly a fair inference that you were intimidating. Well, Your Honor, what the video does not show is

The altercation that happened in the backyard with him and believe it was about– he had about three workers there. And when I confronted him about the slope, and the plastic, and the reason why he was throwing rock on top of the bushes and plants that he already planted, that’s when an argument happened.

And they surrounded me. But subsequent to all of this, there’s an exchange of emails where the defendant proposes to you a way to settle this.