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MERCED COUNTY — 47-year-old Edward Mitchell Jr. is behind bars as of April 5th, due to a $600,000 warrant out of Merced County for “fourteen felony counts of obtaining money, labor or property by false pretenses and 14 felony counts of diversion of construction funds.”
Between July 2014 and October 2015, the Contractors State License Board conducted an investigation into complaints about Mitchell accepting well-drilling deposites from at least 14 victims. According to CSLB Enforcement Supervisor Winton Horn in an official press release, Mitchell never made good on the work for which his victims paid.
Mitchell, appointed CEO of Mitchell Drilling Environment Corporation, had his CSLB license revoked on April 26th of last year.
He was arrested by the Humboldt County District Attorney’s Office Investigations Unit, with assistance from the CSLB. He was arrested at his home in Eureka and extradited to Merced County to face charges.
Investigators say some of Mitchell’s victims suffered additional hardships due to their drilling permits expiring and, because of changes in county ordinances, their now-ineligibility for new ones.
