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BEAVER TOWNSHIP -- More details have emerged in the arrest of a local businessman, and the song remains very much the same.
A fourth-degree felony warrant that contributed to the arrest Friday of John P. Bartos III arose from a Beaver Township woman's claim that she paid him $6,000 for windows and a patio door he never installed.
Bartos, 43, was arrested Friday at a Boardman hotel on four outstanding warrants. Court records showed that one of those was issued by Mahoning County Canfield Court Judge Molly K. Johnson in connection with the Beaver Township charge filed in June.
Bartos, who has been repeatedly charged and convicted in Ohio and Pennsylvania for taking money from customers for work he never completed or even began, previously operated as Gridiron Windows and Doors. He has recently been doing business as Pro Windows and Patio Doors.
A Beaver Township police report states that a woman told police she paid him $6,000 toward a $12,729 home improvement contract. The woman told police a family member recommended Bartos and she contacted him March 16 to install nine exterior windows and one exterior patio door.
Bartos told her he required a 50% down payment, and the woman told police she paid $4,000 by check and another $2,000 by credit card. Bartos allegedly told her he would order the materials and expected to begin installation in early May.
By the end of May, however, the woman told police she began questioning when the work would begin. She contacted Bartos again June 4, and he allegedly told her he would provide an installation date. The report states Bartos provided several dates but on each scheduled day, he gave the woman a reason he could not come.
The woman eventually researched Bartos and discovered news reports about similar complaints involving him. She contacted him again, and Bartos allegedly said he would complete the work July 15 or July 20. When he did not appear, the woman contacted Beaver Township police and asked to pursue charges. The report lists the $6,000 as stolen and not recovered.
The allegations resemble those underlying another of the warrants on which Bartos was arrested Friday.
A Weathersfield Township man told police in August that he contracted in May with Pro Windows and Doors for a $7,000 project and gave Bartos a $3,000 deposit. The man said Bartos immediately cashed the check but repeatedly scheduled and canceled the work before eventually ceasing to answer his calls and text messages.
Bartos also was arrested on probation-related warrants from Mahoning and Columbiana counties. He failed to appear Aug. 21 for a probation-violation hearing in Columbiana County Common Pleas Court, prompting Judge Scott Washam to issue a bench warrant. Prosecutors there have moved to revoke his probation.
Bartos was convicted in 2024 of theft-related offenses in Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties. He received probation in all three counties, and served 90 days in jail in Columbiana County, after repaying the customers, including $103,000 to 25 victims in the Mahoning County case.
Boardman police also arrested Bartos in May on an Allegheny County, Pa., theft-by-deception warrant involving another contracting customer; he pleaded guilty June 3 to an amended disorderly conduct charge and awaits sentencing.
Bartos appeared Tuesday in Mahoning County Canfield Court on the Beaver Township charge - one count of felony theft, a fourth-degree felony.