BURLINGTON, Ky. — Following consumer complaints, the former principal officer of Window Planet is facing theft charges in three Tri-State counties and has spent the last five weeks in jail, according to court records and jail rosters.
In Hamilton County, a grand jury indicted Tara Curles on five felonies, including engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, a first-degree felony. She also faces theft-related charges in Boone and Warren counties.
Curles has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
"They had a business model of stealing," Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said Thursday during an interview with the WCPO 9 I-Team.
The Ohio Attorney General's Office is the special prosecutor in the criminal case filed in Hamilton County. Yost's office is also suing Window Planet and Curles in civil court for alleged violations of state consumer protection laws.
According to the civil complaint, the defendants used "unfair and deceptive" practices, took thousands of dollars from customers without providing windows and other items, and performed "shoddy and substandard work."
Yost said more than 100 victims are part of the civil lawsuit and that there are at least $230,000 in damages.
"It's unusual to see this kind of a repetition — over and over and over again — person after person," Yost said. "It's a big case with a lot of people hurt."
In an email, Curles' attorney Michael Bouldin declined to comment.
WCPO 9's Don't Waste Your Money reporter John Matarese exposed consumer complaints against Window Planet in a series of stories in 2021 and 2022.
Last year, Norwood resident Patty Kroell said she had waited seven months for windows that still hadn't been delivered.
"With us being incorporated, they weren't supposed to be able to go personally after me," Curles told a Boone County deputy on body camera video during her arrest on July 11.
The I-Team received the body camera video documenting Curles' arrest in response to a public records request.
In a vehicle on her way to jail, Curles told a deputy, "we just ran out of money."
Curles blamed skyrocketing prices during the pandemic that had a "domino effect" on the company.
"2021 was when the struggle started," she told the deputy on the body camera recording. "Kind of, everything came to a close at the beginning of the year."
Curles spent 17 days in the Boone County Jail, according to the jail website. Then, she was transferred to the Hamilton County Justice Center.
On Thursday, the Justice Center's online inmate roster showed Curles was still housed there.
