Editor ––
I underwent open heart surgery on Nov. 2, 2021, and was hospitalized through the entire month of November. While I was hospitalized, Castine Mcilhargey started a GoFundMe account stating, “As some of you may know…. (See attached” during the next 15 days over 78 friends and neighbors, and even total strangers, donated almost $5000 to me to help with expenses.
I never received that first $5000 collected. Instead, Castine deposited the money into our business account. Castine and her father, Jody McIntyre then used the money on personal expenses including cable bills, trips to HEB, assorted personal expenditures and close to $2000 on Google LOKKA for movies and music during the month of December and January of 2022.
I started asking questions about where the money had gone and Jody first denied knowledge, but later in a Facebook message he said;
“Messages (Facebook) from Jody 2/11/22, 11:16 AM
Cool, I found out why I didn't know about any of the other distributions other than the initial one for $3457.50. When Castine associated the bank account for GoFundMe to transfer money to, GoFundMe then started transferring funds to said account. I was under the impression that each transfer was initiated separately but GoFundMe then just sends available funds daily (or on their own schedule) to that account. I don't believe anyone was aware of how that process worked. I check the bank balance from time to time to make sure that there is enough money there to pay company bills such as rent, services, parts/inventory/supplies orders, payroll, etc. Of course the balance fluctuates daily or so as customers pay invoices and deposits are made to the account. So it looks like around $1300.00 (I'll total exactly) of additional monies after the initial distribution were deposited into the account. I'll make sure that our company books reflect the transfers as either a capital contribution or as a loan to company. I believe the latter will have more favorable terms for you tax wise, as a loan to company doesn't increase company net worth and repayment of the loan to you won't be considered a distribution and therefore considered taxable income on your end. I'll work on this over weekend and we can review everything together along with a schedule for company to repay that is workable.
To be clear, I, Steven Hathcock, NEVER authorized any such “loan” to the company or to Jody McIntyre, nor to his daughter Castine Mcilhargey. Later, during January of 2022 more donations totaling almost $2000 came in and in spite of my continued post-operative weakness, I was able to pressure Jodyand Castine to give THAT money to me.
I continued pressing Jody to turn over the other $5000 that people had donated to help me with expenses. In one text exchange he stated, “I took no monies whatsoever in December or at all. Repeatedly stating so will not make this true. I don’t know when and how long you have been without income but Los Guys LLC is under no obligation to supply you with income.” (Los Guys was the account Castine deposited into rather than my personal account.)
On April 11, 2022, Detective Dominguez of the South Padre Island PD took my statement and assigned a case number 22-00807. At that time, I supplied him with the bank records of our business account from the First National Bank of South Padre Island which detailed all deposits and withdrawals.
After a short investigation Detective Dominguez forwarded his report to the DA’s office in Brownsville. After not hearing from the DA for several weeks, I called and made an appointment to talk with someone in the office. I was directed to Pete Gilman and sometime in mid-May we met at his office in Brownsville.
At that time, he told me that detective Dominguez’s report was, “unintelligible and that further investigation was needed.” He said that he might have one of his people go over the report with Detective Dominguez. I showed Mr. Gilman the bank records detailing the different deposits made into the business account with no payments being made to me. He told me that he was not a bookkeeper and that I needed to have an accountant put it into a form he could read. (At this time there was less than a years’ worth of statements with none of them being more than 2 pages long.)
I called Suzette Floyd, my accountant and told her my dilemma. She was recovering from a health issue and directed me to man who worked with her who then spent the weekend preparing a comprehensive report and told me he would be on standby to answer any questions Mr. Gilman might have.
I returned to Mr. Gilman’s office, and he looked at the paperwork and then tossed it on the table and asked me, “What do you want me to do?”
I replied, “the money was deposited into this account, and I never received it.” I wanted him to prosecute Jody and Castine and hopefully recover some or all of the money. He told me he had a lot on his plate right now and was very busy.
He then asked me if I had been listening to the January 6 hearings and what did I think about them. I replied, “I am a conservative and I think it sucks!” He then launched into a fifteen minute tirade about how we had “almost lost our democracy.” (I did not engage him in any of his ideas.)
After he was finished, he told me he would see about assigning his investigators to the case and that he was going on vacation. He told me I would hear back in a few weeks.
I called back several times after he returned, but his secretary always told me he was unavailable. I then called and asked the receptionist if I could talk with the DA. I was transferred to his office and explained to the DA’s secretary that I was wondering about the status of my case and could I talk with the DA about assigning someone else because of Mr. Gilman’s heavy workload. I gave her the case number and she told me she would look into it and call me back.
I waited a couple of days and called again. She told me the case had never been logged in and she had no idea what I was talking about. She told me she would talk with Pete Gilman about it.
I started calling a couple of times a week and at first the receptionist would transfer me to the DA’s office, but nobody answered the phone. This went on for a couple of weeks. Eventually, even the switchboard quit answering and I would just hear a recorded message that no one was available to answer my call.
After a month or so passed, I started calling different officials here on the Island to try and get help. I won’t go into detail or name names, but to a person they said they could not (would not) help me. They said that they, “had no power over the DA.” I pointed out that they were our first line of defense as far as law and order and there must be someway they can ensure that South Padre Island crime victims receive justice.
I swear the above to be true and accurate to the best of my knowledge.
