Warrant Filed Against Contractors Under Investigation by D.A.

Criminal arrest warrants were filed against two men who run a Bristol Township-based private contracting company. The two men, according to sources, are the focus of a large investigation and a grand jury.

Ryan Thayer, 29,  and John Thayer, 61, are expected to be arraigned in the coming days on felony charges of  failure to perform services, theft by deception, and deceitful business practices. In all, both are charged with more than 20 felonies each, according to online court documents.

The father and son team own and operate Hammertime Construction and Demolition based out of the Bristol Township section of Levittown.

Law enforcement sources confirmed the filing of the charges Monday. Court records indicate warrants are out for the two men as of press time.

LevittownNow.com has confirmed with police and municipal sources the business owners are the target of an investigation into alleged uncompleted projects that homeowners said they paid for. However, it is unclear if the charges filed Monday are connected to that investigation or another one.

A Bucks County Detectives investigation was in progress in April. At that time, county detectives served a sealed search warrant on Bristol  Township for records related to the contractor’s business from the License and Inspections Department.

On Memorial Day Weekend, LevittownNow.com broke the story that Falls and Bensalem townships were served with subpoena’s for records related to work done by Hammertime in those municipalities.

At a Bristol Township Council meeting in May, it was made public the contractor being investigated was a current Zoning Board official, yet stopped short of directly pointing the finger at  zoning board member, Ryan Thayer. Additionally at same meeting, it was announced the municipality hired a second attorney to represent employees who had been subpoenaed as part of the District Attorney’s investigation.

District Attorney David Heckler said in April: “We’re looking to see if there was criminality.”

A source close to the investigation told LevittownNow.com in June, the contractor was performing work on a home “where someone very important lived,” which according to the source was the impetus for the District Attorney’s involvement.

Sources confirmed five files taken from Bristol Township offices included contracts from the Thayers’ business. Investigators from the county detectives closed off the License and Inspections office for about four hours while they executed the search.

Ryan Thayer was appointed to the zoning board to replace an out going member of the board, according to an official. Since the investigation kicked off, Thayer has not taken part in his role as a zoning board member,

Bristol Township Manager Bill McCauley, who is on vacation, told LevittownNow.com Monday afternoon: “this is a consumer protection investigation, and as such, we really have nothing to say about it other than to make the point the township – other than the Thayers being residents here – is no way connected to the warrants filed.”

McCauley added Ryan Thayer was removed from his position on the board due to his missing  zoning board meetings.

Ryan Thayer is currently awaiting a preliminary hearing on a charge of bad checks in Falls Township. Police said in court filings that the 29-year-old failed to pay a concrete company nearly $3,000.

Officials from the District Attorney’s office were not available for comment as of press time. An attempt to reach Hammertime Construction officials for comment was unanswered as of press time.

Editor’s Note: All individuals arrested or charged with a crime are presumed innocent until proven guilty. The story was compiled using information from police and public court documents.