Verdict expected today in unbuilt pole barns case

A judge is expected to decide today whether Sam Cover is one of the worst business managers ever or a thief who intended to steal from 28 Spokane County clients who paid him for pole barns that never got built.

Assistant Public Defender Derek Reid said the 41-year-old Cover, who is implicated in more than 100 similar cases in Washington and North Idaho, simply got in over his head in what had been a successful venture to build steel-sided buildings.

Authorities believe Cover, an ex-convict, pocketed about $1.2 million owed to material suppliers and former clients, and owed well more than $100,000 in back taxes. He was originally charged with 29 counts of first-degree theft by deception, but one count was dropped during the trial that started April 30.

“He got overextended, and these were the consequences,” said Reid, who described Cover’s record keeping as a “disaster.”

“It’s tragic. Yes, they are out of their money,” Reid said of the victims. “But it doesn’t mean he intended to steal their money.”

Superior Court Judge Robert Austin will decide the case instead of a jury. He told the attorneys that he will review his notes and hopes to have a decision sometime this afternoon.

Reid said his client was doing everything he could to construct the buildings and used the fact that Cover had made several payments to suppliers as proof that he was continuing to conduct business.

Deputy Prosecutor Bob Sargent had a decidedly different take. He detailed how each victim got holes in the ground, nothing at all or had liens placed on their property because Cover hadn’t paid the suppliers.

“Why would he pay a little to the suppliers? Because if you want to keep the scheme going, you’ve got to get supplies,” Sargent said.

Sargent said Cover and the customer would agree on a price for a building. He would have the customer sign a contract and pay one-third of the total price.

When the materials arrived, Cover would get a check to pay their cost or essentially the next third of the total price. But Cover always had the client pay more than the value of the materials delivered, Sargent said.

That was the last time most of the victims ever heard from Cover, who previously served five years in prison for bank robbery and other crimes similar to the charges he now faces.

Reid acknowledged that most of the 28 victims got nothing from their contracts with Cover. But the attorney argued that they should sue Cover in civil court for breach of contract.

“The evidence was that he was conducting business, albeit poorly and much to the detriment of these 28 victims, but there are civil remedies,” Reid said.

Sargent told Austin that the civil suits would be a waste of time because Cover blew all the money he raised from the contracts to feed his gambling habit. “That’s where the losses are, your honor.”