Bragg
A default judgment has been entered against a Whiteland hot rod restoration company for deceiving customers and failing to complete work it was hired to do.
The Indiana Attorney General’s Office filed a lawsuit in March 2023 against JB Bugs Trick & Truck Shop LLC and Palm Principals LLC — both operating under the name JB Bugs — and owners John E. Bragg II and Melanie Goode for their failure to perform work after taking payments from customers seeking restoration of vintage Volkswagen vehicles. State officials say 20 consumers paid JB Bugs more than $240,000 without the company restoring the consumers’ vehicles or providing any refunds. Officials say the defendants violated the Indiana Deceptive Consumer Sales Act’s prohibition on deceptive and unfair business practices.
After customers paid the company significant sums of money for the restorations — and received assurances the work was in progress — they eventually learned the company’s building, located in Whiteland, was vacated and their vintage vehicles were missing.
Attorneys for the state filed a request for a default judgment to be entered against the plaintiffs in the state’s favor on Dec. 15. Officials made the move after Bragg and Goode failed to respond to the lawsuit, according to court documents.
Johnson Superior Court 1 Judge Kevin Barton approved the state’s request on Dec. 21, along with injunctions against Bragg and Goode. Both of them are barred from owning a business based or operating in Indiana that engages in consumer transactions, court documents show.
The companies associated with Bragg and Goode — JB Bugs Trick & Truck Shop LLC and Palm Principals LLC — are also barred from taking consumer deposits for work not yet performed. Barton also ruled Bragg and Goode must pay $242,225 in restitution to the 20 consumers they defrauded, court documents say.
Bragg and Goode were also assessed a civil penalty of $100,000 for 20 violations of the Indiana code — $5,000 per violation. Another civil penalty of $10,000 was assessed for 20 deceptive acts at $500 per violation, according to court documents.
They will ultimately pay $352,225 in fees and restitution, court documents show.
The lawsuit is just one of several legal cases Bragg is involved in.
Bragg, 46, is facing criminal charges for his alleged actions at the Whiteland hot rod shop. A former Greenwood and Nashville resident, he was arrested in March 2023 in North Carolina on a local warrant stemming from fraud and theft charges.
Since June 2022, the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office has sought Bragg in connection to the reported fraud and theft charges. In June, the owner of the building told deputies he rented a building at the address to a “John ‘J.B.’ Goode,” who had failed to pay rent for the shop for three months, according to court documents.
John Goode is an alias of Bragg’s, detectives say. While they were at the business, they took reports from multiple people alleging that Bragg had taken their money and not done the work he agreed to do on vehicles they had asked him to restore.
Since October, law enforcement has been trying to speak with Bragg and his girlfriend Melanie Goode, the shop’s owner. One of defrauded customers’ checks was deposited in an account belonging to the business/Goode, court documents show.
The search for Bragg took detectives to West Virginia before he was finally arrested in North Carolina on March 4, 2023. Goode was not in North Carolina with Bragg, and detectives believe she is still in West Virginia. While she is not wanted in Johnson County, Lawrence County sheriff’s deputies were looking for her in connection to charges there, officials said last year.
Bragg has not yet been extradited to Johnson County. He had a sentencing hearing at the end of February and is currently being housed at the Irwin County Detention Center in Georgia, Johnson County Sheriff Duane Burgess said.
