Warnings unheeded
Victim’s prediction comes true: Unlicensed roofer Andre Baptiste takes off rather than report to prison
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For years, Carlos Noguera warned Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg that unscrupulous roofer Andre Baptiste couldn’t be trusted.
With a million-dollar home in a quiet community off Hypoluxo Road and citizenship in Trinidad and Tobago, Baptiste would sell his home and board a one-way flight to his home country rather than spend a day in prison, Noguera repeatedly predicted in regular emails to the county’s top prosecutor.
Now, he says, it appears his gloomy — and ignored — forecasts were correct.
On May 16, when the 75-year-old Baptiste was supposed to turn himself in to begin serving his sentence for slapping illegal liens on the homes of unsuspecting seniors and working without a license, he failed to appear in court. A month earlier, records show, he sold his house for $1.2 million.
“They’re not going to find him. He’s gone,” said Noguera, a retired Miami cop-turned-firefighter who organized a band of seniors who claimed they were victims of Baptiste’s shady tactics.
But, rather than gloat that his prediction seems to have panned out, Noguera is angry.
“It’s incredible, just incredible,” said Noguera, who claims Baptiste defrauded tens of thousands of dollars from as many as 100 homeowners. “They don’t listen. They just don’t listen.”
Marc Freeman, a spokesperson for Aronberg, insisted that prosecutors had no reason to suspect Baptiste would flee. He wasn’t charged with “high-level felonies,” Freeman said. That’s why prosecutors didn’t demand that he surrender his passport.
But, Noguera countered, prosecutors had ample evidence that Baptiste didn’t follow court orders. Two years before he was charged with the felonies, in 2021, he was charged with illegally using another contractor’s permit. He pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor, was placed on probation for 12 months, told to pay $2,000 in restitution to two women he scammed and ordered to stop working without a license.
Eleven months later, Baptiste was back in court. His probation officer discovered he had done work without a license. He pleaded guilty to the probation violation and was placed on house arrest for a year.
Days later, Noguera wrote yet another email to Aronberg’s office, including real estate listings that showed Baptiste’s 4,700-square-foot house was for sale.
“The system has failed these victims and have proven to Baptiste that crime pays,” Noguera wrote. “He now sits in his pool sipping a cold drink and probably scamming another senior so he can pay for his Boca Raton attorney instead of sitting in a jail.”
Baptiste’s blatant violation of probation should have convinced prosecutors that he couldn’t be trusted, Noguera said.
In a February letter to Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Scott Suskauer, which also was emailed to Aronberg’s office, Noguera pleaded with the judge to overturn the plea agreement in the felony case.
“We do not understand why he was afforded the recent plea deal with the past history of arrests that Andre Baptiste has,” Noguera wrote.
But, Freeman said, the plea was carefully crafted. It gave Baptiste powerful incentive to report to prison. If Baptiste showed up on May 16 as ordered, his sentence would be reduced from five years to 24 months with three years of probation.
If he reimbursed two homeowners the $7,150 he collected in illegal liens, another six months would be shaved off his sentence and he could avoid probation. Last week, six days after Baptiste disappeared and a warrant was issued for his arrest, his former attorney filed papers, showing restitution had been paid.
“We do not know Mr. Baptiste’s whereabouts and whether or not he fled the country,” Freeman wrote in an email. “We are looking into it.”
If Baptiste is arrested, Freeman said his ultimate sentence would be up to Suskauer.
But, if Baptiste did return to his native country, he’s essentially home free. Because he pleaded guilty in February to four third-degree felonies and a misdemeanor, Aronberg won’t go to the trouble or expense of seeking international extradition, Freeman said.
In some ways, it’s a fitting end to a long-running story.
Roofer sued Noguera first
Noguera started looking into Baptiste in 2018 after the roofer sued him in Palm Beach County Circuit Court, claiming Noguera failed to pay him for $8,400 in emergency roof repairs after Hurricane Irma and failed to honor a contract to pay nearly $76,000 for a new roof.
Insisting he had agreed to pay Baptiste $1,500 for the roof repairs and never agreed to hire him to put on a new roof, Noguera fought back.
He discovered that Baptiste didn’t have a roofing license and couldn’t get one because he is a felon. Instead, according to Florida law, he had to work under a licensed roofer, who was supposed to oversee his work.
Baptiste initially worked under the license of his ex-wife. When she refused to serve as his “qualifier,” he used the name of a roofer who had been dead for five years, records show. Later, he used the name of a Delray Beach contractor, who told county licensing regulators that Baptiste used his name without permission.
Noguera also searched court records, looking for others who had liens placed on their homes or had been sued by Baptiste. He found dozens. Many, like him, said he billed their insurance companies astronomical amounts. Others insisted signatures on documents were phony. But, they said, they didn’t know what to do.
Noguera urged them to fight back.
Some were successful. Two women won six-figure civil judgments against Baptiste.
State and county license regulators also fined Baptisite thousands of dollars for working without a license.
But, even with Baptiste’s conviction, Noguera insists more should have been done.
The sentence that Baptiste may now never serve was “a sweetheart deal,” said Noguera, who two years ago moved from suburban Boynton Beach to Dallas to be closer to his children.
He should never have been allowed to remain free after he pleaded guilty in February. He should have been charged with more serious offenses, including insurance fraud and forgery, Noguera said.
In one of his regular emails that he sends to other victims, along with state and federal lawmakers, Noguera last week blasted Aronberg for not taking the allegations against Baptiste more seriously.
“He is now laughing at all of you and is enjoying his freedom and is most likely looking for other victims of his scams,” he wrote.