License to drill: Buyer beware — some Maricopa contractors don’t play by the rules

In 2021, Sorrento resident Elisa Olivarez wanted a new kitchen backsplash. She chose an oyster-white mosaic tile and started shopping for a contractor to install it.

Michael Scott Parker, with his Maricopa-based Copper State Home Renovations, was the man for the job. He gave her a hell of a deal, too. He even knocked a few bucks off the original estimate.

“He wasn’t licensed at the time,” Olivarez recalled in a conversation with InMaricopa. “But he was working towards that.”

Three years later, he’s still not licensed. He never was, according to the Arizona Registrar of Contractors.

Ground rules
Unlicensed contractors can build successful careers in Arizona, but they have to play by the rules — or face criminal charges. There are only two rules, and they’re quite simple: No jobs over $1,000, and every advertisement must display the exact phrase, “Not a Licensed Contractor.”

In an analysis of Parker’s website, business cards and dozens of online advertisements, this crucial disclaimer doesn’t appear a single time. What does appear, though, is his motto: “No job too big or too small!”

A job over $1,000, for Parker, would indeed be too big. At least according to Arizona law.

That magic number must incorporate the costs of both labor and materials, per state law, even if the customer buys the materials. The law also states the work performed by an unlicensed contractor should be “casual” or “minor.”

Parker recently took on such projects as pouring concrete patio slabs and a bathroom remodel. Not exactly minor or casual.

Copper State Endeavors LLC, of which Parker is the sole proprietor, is listed as “other” under business type, according to the Arizona Corporation Commission. A review of other contractors in Maricopa found most were listed as “construction” or “handyman.”

A conversation with Parker ended when InMaricopa asked if he was aware of the state’s contractor laws.

Background check
Getting a contractor’s license in Arizona is pretty straightforward. Maybe that’s why there are more than 45,000 active licenses in the state, according to AZROC.

All you need is an LLC, $131 in application fees, a successful background check and a passing score on a test proving cursory experience in the field. Parker has an LLC and plenty of experience. He probably has $131.

It’s the background check where things start getting dicey. Parker’s criminal record is longer than a CVS receipt.

Parker, 31, faced dozens of criminal charges in Texas and Arizona from 2012 to 2023.

In 2013, he was charged with three counts of injuring a child and pleaded guilty. The following year, at age 22, he was charged with three counts of sexually assaulting a child.

In 2015, he failed to register as a sex offender, which he was required to do for 10 years.

Parker failed to appear in court so many times, he racked up $99,000 in penalties, according to records from the 36th District Court in Denton, Texas.

He was arrested for possessing illegal drugs in Texas in 2017, and again in Arizona in 2022.

In Maricopa, he was charged with criminal damage and fighting in 2021. Then for resisting arrest in 2022. He failed to appear in court four more times between 2021 and 2023. During those same years, he faced seven criminal charges for driving uninsured and with a revoked license.

Throughout his criminal career, Parker has been found guilty or pleaded guilty nine times and has been ordered to pay $261,000 in court costs and fines, according to court records from Texas and Arizona.

AZROC can disqualify a person based on his criminal record if there is a state interest in “protecting public safety that is superior to the person’s right” to licensure, especially if the person “is more likely to reoffend by virtue of having” the license than not.

For example, working in private homes can provide access to children.

Most wanted
Parker isn’t the only unlicensed contractor flouting the law in Maricopa. He isn’t even the city’s most infamous.

That honor goes to Donald Elliott Libby II, alias Donnie Noland, who is one of 20 people to ever be named AZROC’s Most Wanted.

Between 2013 and 2021, Libby was the subject of at least 18 contractor fraud investigations in Arizona, according to AZROC.

This con man from Phoenix made his living scamming people in that city and the West Valley — except for one. It was a lone crime he committed in Maricopa that landed him on the AZROC Most Wanted list, according to previously unreported court documents.

Pinal County Superior Court issued a warrant for Libby in 2019 when he was wanted on charges of contracting without a license and failed to appear in court. The charges stemmed from an AZROC investigation that found Libby accepted $1,400 for a granite countertop installation on the mobile marketplace OfferUp and never returned to start the job or deliver materials.

That led to Libby’s later conviction on felony theft charges, which were committed the previous year “in or near Maricopa,” according to a newly unsealed case file in county court.

He was caught and sentenced to 18 months of probation in 2020. According to AZROC, last year, the 59-year-old had a new business name listed as NLD Handyman. He still advertises services in Maricopa.

Concerned residents launched DonaldLibby.com last year as a public service announcement warning about “Don the Con” and his 15 known accomplices. The landing page is stocked with videos, news articles and court records.

Fraud squad
While others like Parker have undoubtedly yet to get busted by law enforcement, many more like Libby have been caught violating Arizona’s contractor laws in Maricopa. It appears flouting state contractor laws often goes hand-in-hand with more serious crimes.

Take Glennwilde resident Cynthia Bueno Tapia, for example. She was charged with contracting without a license in 2019 and 2020, along with felony counts of fraud and aggravated identity theft. She pleaded guilty to contracting without a license in 2022 in a plea bargain.

U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency agents arrested Bueno Tapia in Pinal County back in 2010 and accused her of making fake driver’s licenses for a Mexican drug cartel. Court dispositions for that case were not available.

Her husband, Miguel T. Tapia, also faced charges of fraud and aggravated identity theft and pleaded guilty to contracting without a license in 2022. He faced more criminal charges for contracting without a license in 2018, 2019 and 2020 through his company M & C Landscaping.

In a twist, the husband-wife duo started a new company, Maricopa Septic Install LLC, and today are both licensed contractors, according to AZROC.

Another extreme case with a sourer ending involves 62-year-old Maricopa resident Gerardo Alonzo Avila, who epitomizes the phrase, “Once a fraud, always a fraud.” He was busted by AZROC for contracting without a license in 2013 and again in 2015.

Just a few months later, he pleaded guilty to insurance fraud, serving one year in state prison and coughing up north of $10,000 in penalties after falsely claiming Native American artifacts were stolen from his Maricopa home.

Avila tried to scam Liberty Mutual out of $220,000, but his shoddy home burglary story didn’t pass the attorney general’s smell test. “It turns out those artifacts were never his, they were never stolen, and were, in fact, on display at the local heritage center,” then-AG Mark Brnovich said in a news release.

That would be the Huhugam Heritage Center on State Route 347, just north of the city.

Buyer Beware
Now, let’s meet Maricopa’s other AZROC violators of the last decade, based on 3,000 case records from AZROC returned to InMaricopa through a Freedom of Information Act request.

In 2023, AZROC charged Fermin Valenzuela and Luis E. Vijarro with contracting without a license in Maricopa via their businesses, Friends to Family Handyman Services and L&F Building and Remodeling. These businesses are based in Maricopa Meadows and are still operational, despite remaining unlicensed.

In 2022, AZROC charged Xavier Gonzalez with contracting without a license in Maricopa through his business, Arizona Building and Remodeling. Gonzalez later got his contractor’s license, which remains in good standing and is valid through June.

In 2022, AZROC charged Andy Alvarado of Arizona Luxury Pools with contracting without a license in Maricopa. Alvarado is still unlicensed. The ACC revoked a business license for Arizona Luxury Pools because it had no valid statutory agent.

In 2020, AZROC charged Jesus Levya of Turfcrete Landscape Construction and DN Concrete & Hardscapes with advertising without a license. He remains unlicensed.

In 2020, AZROC charged Mario A. Castillas of M&M Landscaping and Masonry with contracting without a license in Maricopa. He was charged with the same offense three more times in other Arizona cities since then. He remains unlicensed.

In 2019, AZROC charged Manuel Fuentes of COPA Landscaping with contracting and advertising without a license in Maricopa. He remains unlicensed.

In 2019, AZROC charged Manuel Chavez of Prestige Landscaping in Maricopa with contracting without a license. He now has a valid license.

In 2016, Billy Joe Godwin of Just About Anything Floor Covering & Handyman Service in Maricopa was found violating Arizona’s contractor laws in Maricopa for the fifth time. He is still unlicensed.

In 2015, AZROC charged Hector Machado of Machado’s Custom Landscape with contracting without a license. He now has a valid license.

In 2014, Zachary Govreau was charged with contracting without a license, and he pleaded guilty in Maricopa Municipal Court. His company, Distinct Desert Creations, went under shortly thereafter. He never got a license.

People guilty of contracting without a license face six months in jail and a $4,575 fine. The minimum penalty for a first offense is a $1,830 fine. But contracting without a license often leads to more serious charges, like fraud or theft, both felonies.

“Unlicensed contractors can endanger the health, safety and welfare of the public,” according to a statement from AZROC.

While there is a “Handyman Exemption” that allows for small jobs from people who identify themselves as unlicensed, language in the state law plainly and blanketly prohibits doing any work or even bidding on a project without a license. The law goes out of its way to discourage practicing without a license.

Unlicensed contractors may not be bonded or insured. They may lack experience, use tawdry materials or introduce hazardous chemicals into the home, according to Colby Kanouse, criminal defense attorney in Scottsdale.

“If a construction project goes bad, it can have a huge and detrimental effect on public and personal safety,” says Kanouse. “Imagine an improperly built bridge, or a high-rise built on an unstable foundation. Even the construction of a home or the renovation of a kitchen, if not performed properly, can result in a significant costs and risks to health and safety.”

An InMaricopa poll last month found 2 in 3 readers would not hire a contractor knowing he was unlicensed.