Contractor Alexander Almarez, accused of failing to fix Sandy-damaged homes, sees former clients in court

Tonia Mitchell has been staying in an RV on a side street outside her mother’s uninhabitable house in Freeport. Her own home, just a short drive away, is also unsuitable to live in.

Both women were unable to return to their storm-damaged houses after turning over funds from the state’s New York Rising program, established to help homeowners rebuild homes slammed by Superstorm Sandy, to a contractor now accused of fraudulently failing to complete the work.

On Thursday, Mitchell and about a dozen other alleged victims of Alexander Almaraz came face-to-face with him inside a courtroom where he was arraigned on charges of wire fraud conspiracy, wire fraud, and attempted wire fraud in an alleged $2.5 million scheme. He pleaded not guilty before United States Magistrate Judge Lee Dunst at the federal courthouse in Central Islip.

“He took our $95,000 and did nothing,” said Mitchell, who hired Almaraz seven years ago to finish the job after another contractor lifted the homes to allow for the demolition of storm-damaged foundations. Her mother, Joysetta Pearse, died in 2021 after spending five years displaced.

Almaraz sat in the third row of the courtroom for nearly two hours, often closing his eyes as his alleged victims sat all around him, sharing their horror stories with each other and members of the media.

The arraignment was delayed after prosecutors learned through a pretrial services report they received Thursday afternoon that Almaraz had been arrested on similar charges in California, where he lived, before moving to Freeport and setting up shop for his business, Design Concepts Group LLC in the aftermath of Sandy, Assistant U.S. Attorney Megan Farrell told the court.

Almaraz pleaded guilty to a lesser charge in the earlier incident all while he was continuing to tout his disaster recovery business in New York, she said.

Stephen McParland of Baldwin Harbor was convinced to hire Almaraz in 2015 after meeting with him in an impressive office space in Freeport, where the contractor said he could raise his house and replace the foundation more quickly and at a lesser cost than other contractors.

“He seemed like a nice guy,” McParland told Newsday. “That wasn’t the case.”

McParland said he and his wife were forced to move four times in the next four years, with the “trauma” of the ordeal ultimately contributing to the end of their marriage. He has since returned to the home thanks to a contractor friend who finished the job, he said.

In a 22-count indictment prosecutors alleged Almaraz spent the New York Rising Funds on credit card bills, land in Kansas City, Missouri, a Lamborghini, a Porsche and a Jaguar.

Almaraz, who was represented in court by Evan Sugar of Federal Defenders of New York, walked out of the courthouse Thursday on an unsecured $100,000 bond put up by his fiancee, Shawna Singer. Sugar had no comment.

She told Dunst she met Almaraz 11 months ago and they have since become engaged to be married. She said she left her job as a therapist at a Southern California military base to assist Almaraz in his “disaster recovery business.” The couple declined to comment.

Almaraz is due back in court via teleconference March 9. He was ordered by Dunst to not travel outside of New York and California as he awaits trial.

By Grant Parpan

grant.parpan@newsday.com@GrantParpan

Grant Parpan covers Suffolk County courts and federal courts for Newsday. A Long Island native, he joined Newsday in 2022.