Penland was president of the now-defunct AR Environmental Inc., which won more than $1 million in demolition and asbestos removal contracts from the city of Dayton in 2009 and 2010, but was later sued for alleged fraud and noncompliance.
AR Environmental was based in Cincinnati, and Hamilton County assistant prosecutor Mark Tierney said Penland’s drug and weapons charges stemmed from a traffic stop there last year, at which Penland briefly stopped, then drove off.
Tierney said Penland eventually fled on foot before being cornered by a police canine. Police found him with two handguns and 8.43 grams of heroin that Tierney said was prepared for distribution.
Dayton lawsuit ongoing
In Dayton, Penland’s company was hired despite his five previous felony convictions — four on gun or drug charges — and the company was eventually cited for multiple violations by the Regional Air Pollution Control Agency.
The city of Dayton terminated its contracts with AR Environmental late in 2010, then sued Penland and his company in U.S. District Court in October 2011, saying AR performed “bogus” asbestos surveys, filed fraudulent invoices and demolished vacant buildings without properly removing cancer-causing asbestos.
Heather Lauer, spokeswoman for the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, said Tuesday that the EPA’s investigation into Penland’s work with the city of Dayton is still ongoing after several months.
The city of Dayton’s lawsuit also is still pending, as Penland, acting as his own attorney from within the Hamilton County Jail, has filed numerous motions and a counterclaim against the city of Dayton, asking for $244,000 for work he says was properly completed.
Penland claims the city breached AR’s contract by calling in one of his competitors, Steve Rauch, Inc., to contain a site on Jerome Avenue that was improperly demolished, without giving AR a chance to fix the problem first.
Penland, who is black, also claimed civil rights violations, saying the city treated him differently than white contractors who were cited for violations.
The city of Dayton filed a motion to dismiss, saying Penland, as an individual, doesn’t have standing to file legal claims on behalf of the defunct AR Environmental. That motion is pending. City spokesman Tom Biedenharn said Tuesday the city would not comment on pending litigation.
In a separate case in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court, Big L Trucking, a subcontractor that worked for AR Environmental in Dayton, won a $60,000 judgment against AR in December.
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