(Note: Welcome to the most viewed post on my blog! For a shorter version of this blog entry, see “Andy Johnson is a Swindler“, or simply scroll down and read the highlighted sentences here. Also, to see what this shyster is currently up to, check out another post I’ve written here, and to see some very amusing lies I’ve caught him in recently, go here.)
There’s no tactful way to say this. Andrew Johnson, Sr., former member of the Florida House of Representatives, long time progressive radio talk show host in Jacksonville, Florida took $3,500.00 from me under false pretenses and refuses to pay it back. This man, whose slogan is “Down to Business Andy Johnson! Never neutral. But always fair” has ripped me off. If you care at all about justice, please spread the word in any way you can. Share this blog on your Facebook page. Copy it to your own blog. Do whatever you can do, because while I have a lien on his 2,100 square foot house, Florida law says that as long as he lives in it, I cannot collect, and meanwhile, I’m about 3 months away from being homeless. Is that fair?
This is Andy Johnson.
All of this is a matter of public record, and I’ll be happy to provide anyone with the case number if they ask, and I’ve also got a stack of evidence about an inch thick that I’d share with anyone who can help me, but here’s what happened: In June, 2009 I owned a house. The roof developed a leak and I was in a panic. I was barely making the mortgage, let alone any major added expense, and I’d put enough patches on that old house to know this was going to be major. That roof was rotting away. My boyfriend at the time, John, worked at a local radio station, WJSJ. He contacted his boss, Andy Johnson, in hopes that a “trade out” could be done. This means that a company gives you a substantial discount for their services in exchange for free radio advertising. As Mr. Johnson has a rather high profile in the community, and at the time I was told he was still a lawyer, and John trusted him and liked working for him, I thought there might be a chance that Mr. Johnson would do this kind thing for a long time loyal employee. And in fact, Mr. Johnson told John to contact Riggins Roofing. He believed a trade out could be done with them.
A few weeks later, an employee from Riggins Roofing came to the house to give us a quote so we could determine the extent of the subsequent discount. The quote came in at $5,900.00. Now it was up to Andy Johnson to enter into negotiations with them. In the meantime, Riggins Roofing had someone come over to put a temporary patch to stop the leak, which led me to believe that a deal was in progress.
After almost two months of Mr. Johnson’s procrastination, on August 21st he finally told John that he had arrived at a deal. They would do our roof for $3,500.00 plus radio advertising. Even that was more money than I had, but it needed to be done. Looking at the ever-expanding water stain on my bedroom ceiling, I had no choice. On August 23rd, John met with Andy Johnson and gave him a check that I wrote from my home equity loan, and he gave us something in writing outlining the deal.
And then nothing happened. Johnson came up with a million excuses, including but not limited to “Riggins is really busy at the moment. They’ll get to it, though.” “They haven’t returned my calls,” and “I have been really busy, John. I haven’t had a chance to talk to them. I’ll have something for you tomorrow.” Many, many tomorrows went by. I got increasingly nervous. By September, I started to suspect I’d never see my money again. But John loved working with this man, so I kept giving him one more chance.
It started to have a negative impact on our relationship and our life. Now I was facing the loss of $3,500.00, plus the prospect of paying someone $5,900.00 to repair the roof. I started losing sleep and having nightmares. Then I broke my foot and never got it treated because I knew the cost would be astronomical. Our overseas vacation got cancelled, and Christmas was downgraded to no tree and two lottery tickets as gifts.
In November, 2009, John found out that Andy Johnson was on the verge of losing the radio station. That’s when I really started to panic. On November 16th, I wrote a letter to Johnson as a good faith effort to try to resolve this issue. John gave it to him, but he refused to sign it. He said he was too busy at the moment, but that John could come get it the next day. The next day, of course, Andy Johnson wasn’t there.
On December 3rd I spoke to Dan Underhill of Riggins Roofing. He expressed shock and dismay that his company was drawn into this, and stated he never agreed to the deal, and in fact, when he sent someone to put a temporary patch on the roof, he did it as a favor to Andy Johnson, and as far as he was concerned, this was the last of his involvement in the matter. He kindly provided me with an affidavit.
This meant that when Mr. Johnson took my money in August he knew full well that he had no roof deal. (Frankly I think this constitutes fraud, but when I spoke with someone at the State Attorney’s office, they said they had much bigger fish to fry, unfortunately. And when I spoke to the Florida Bar, they said that no one by that name was an attorney at the present time.) At this point Andy Johnson stopped returning our calls. I tried calling him at home and spoke to his wife, Mary Johnson, who was totally unaware of this situation. When I told her about it, much to my chagrin I burst into tears. She said, “I’m not impressed with your tears, little girl. You need to be more professional.” I need to be more professional? Me? What about your husband who took my money, lady?
Andy immediately called for a meeting with John, and we got yet another deal with him, which I dictated over the phone and he signed. I’m embarrassed to say I was pretty hysterical at this point. I found out something very interesting during that conversation. Mr. Johnson seemed to be operating under the impression that he’d “have use of” my money for “a time” before the roof was done. This was news to me, and I would have never entered into the deal if I had known that. I also wouldn’t have entered into the deal if I had known that Andy Johnson had not been paying John since March, 2009, something John had neglected to tell me until I filed the lawsuit.
Mr. Johnson’s final deadline to resolve things with me was January 23rd, 2010, and as predicted, nothing happened. He continued to beg for extensions. I finally took him to court, and won the judgment. Andy Johnson, thinking mistakenly that people still cared about him or his reputation, failed to show up as he thought reporters would be waiting at the courthouse, according to John. I’ve had a lien on his house since April, 2010.
Through all of this, John continued to “work” for him, and did so for years afterward. Needless to say, our 16 year relationship ended in June, 2010. He still occasionally makes snide comments on his Facebook page that gives the impression that he was the martyr in the relationship. But how could I live with a man who was too spineless to stand up to his boss, who had done so much damage to me? If my boss had done that to someone I claimed to love, I’d have dragged him around the office by his, well, you know, until he coughed up the money, and then I would have quit. But hey, that’s how I roll. With integrity.
I’ve since sold the house and tried to move on with my life, and I’m in a much better relationship now, with someone who has my back, but I’m even worse off now financially than ever before, and am on the verge of sleeping in my car while Andy Johnson has a decent roof over his head.
I know. I was a fool. And the more research I do on Andy Johnson, the more I realize it. From an Article written by Rich Tucker, staff writer of the Florida Times-Union on July 30, 2000 comes the following quotes about Andy:
“Johnson succeeded in winning a state House seat on schedule and was even re-elected in 1980. But his political career was to end far before he imagined. Johnson would lose four more elections before accepting that reality.
Today, many of the city’s most influential people view Johnson as a rather insignificant, albeit noisy, source of aggravation — a political has-been who had much potential but who no longer is capable of being anything for the city except a disruption.”
“He’s Rush Limbaugh for the Democrats. He is a nut, as far as I’m concerned,” said former state Sen. Arnett Girardeau, who ran against Johnson in 1976, 1982 and 1992. “In his own mind, he thinks he’s a liberal. In my own mind, he’s a liberal with a misguided cause.”
“Johnson’s in-your-face style annoyed some of his colleagues. By his second term, even Johnson admits he was out of favor with many of the senior legislators.
Don Davis, who defeated Johnson in a run for City Council in 1986, said he counts himself lucky that Johnson does not hold an elected office for the city or state.”
“I can tell you one thing,” Davis said. “Had he been successful in getting elected to the Jacksonville City Council, I feel like he would have been the most disruptive factor to hit local government in the history of the state of Florida.”
“Johnson said he sponsored more legislation than nearly any other representative during his time in office, but those who served with Johnson described his behavior as hyperactive and largely unproductive.”
“It seemed like he was always running for something rather than trying to find some issues,” said Tommy Hazouri, a former state representative and Jacksonville mayor. “He was a great debater. The problem is no one ever listened to him.”
“Each of the last three times I was in a campaign it became so stressful that my wife seriously brought up the idea, ‘You know, I don’t think I want to be married to you anymore,’ ” Johnson said. (This coming from the woman who was unimpressed by my tears.)
“And while Johnson remembers each of his defeats with regret, his wife said she often just felt relieved.
Without much remorse, Mary Johnson concedes her husband’s chances of being elected again to any civic office are slim. “He’s so outspoken, and he’s made so many people mad. I think he’s realistic in the respect that he’s got a lot of enemies now.”
“For a political animal like Johnson, that reality is painful.”
“I wish I could have been more effective on all public issues that have concerned me, and I wish I could have done that in such a way that I didn’t make a bunch of people angry,” he said. “People think I enjoy making them angry. That’s just not true. I’m not like that.”
Oh, you aren’t, Andy? Are you a good guy? THEN GIVE ME MY FREAKIN’ MONEY!!!!!
The irony is that I’m probably as progressive as Andy Johnson ever was. I would LOVE to sing his praises. I really would. I’d love to be able to say nice things about him. But his actions prevent me from doing so. In my opinion, he’s an embarrassment to liberal politics, and a moral blight to humanity. His progressive talk show, which always struggled for advertising dollars, was taken off the air in January, 2011. He seems to have fallen off the public radar since then. I’m sure that devastates him, but not nearly as much as he has devastated me.
With court costs, attorney’s fees and interests on the lein, Andrew Johnson, Sr., former member of the Florida House of Representatives, now owes me approximately $4,600.00.
Please spread the word. I’ll keep reposting this blog entry every few months until I have my money.
(This is Andy Johnson. Ironically, we’ve never met face to face. But knowing what I know about the man, even his photo makes me shudder.)
The View from a Drawbridge 