Judge sends man who's accused of taking money from homebuyers to jail

PONTIAC, Mich. (WXYZ) - He was the subject of a 7 Action News Investigation – now he’s behind bars.

Charles Brian Lovejoy’s clients have been telling us for months that he played games with their money and their dreams.

On Tuesday morning, a judge told Lovejoy he was playing games with the court – and she sent him to jail.

“He needs to give us our money back,” Zohanon McMullen told 7 Action News Investigator Heather Catallo back in May.  McMullen is just one of many people who say Charles Brian Lovejoy stole their dreams of owning a home.

The 7 Action News Investigators first showed you how McMullen and others said they gave Lovejoy tens of thousands of dollars to buy homes – but Lovejoy never paid off the banks.

Police arrested Lovejoy after they say he did the same thing to 70-year-old John Henry with this home in Lathrup Village.

Lovejoy pleaded no contest to 2 felonies in that case – and he was supposed to be sentenced Tuesday.

But prosecutors say the 35-year-old failed to show up for a pre-sentence investigation with probation officials, and then dodged their calls and visits.  So they asked Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Colleen O’Brien to revoke Lovejoy’s bond and send him to jail.

“I believe it’s the only way that the court can assure that the defendant will timely appear for his sentencing, and that justice in this case will not be delayed any longer,” said Assistant Oakland County Prosecutor Jeff Formanczyk.

7 Action News has learned that Lovejoy has a history of failing to comply with court orders – he owes more than $692,000 in default judgments for civil lawsuits involving other real estate transactions.

Lovejoy’s attorney tried to argue that his client has always been on time for his criminal court dates and that probation must have had the wrong address for him.

The judge didn’t buy it – and ordered Lovejoy to spend the next three weeks in jail until his next date for sentencing.

“I think that the defendant is playing games with the court. I’m going to revoke the bond,” said Judge O’Brien.

John Henry did not want to show his face on camera – but he did tell us he’s relieved Lovejoy is behind bars for now.

“I just think he’s been trying to beat the system all the time.  He has to show up the next time, because he’s incarcerated,” said Henry.

Henry says Lovejoy did pay back some of the money – but he still had to buy the house twice – once from Lovejoy, and again from the bank.

When 7 Action News spoke to Brian Lovejoy on the phone back in May, he blamed most of the deals that went south on a former business partner.  He also told us that he was trying to pay some of these families back – but lawyers I spoke to say that hasn’t happened yet.

The state Office of Financial and Insurance Regulation is also investigating Lovejoy.  They issued a Cease and Desist order to G. I. A. F, Inc., and its vice president, Charles Brian Lovejoy.  The OFIR investigation found that Lovejoy, through G. I. A. F., Inc., sold a title insurance policy without a license, which is illegal.