Trial of East TN roofer, race car driver charged over unfinished jobs postponed

TAZEWELL, Tenn. (WATE) — A Claiborne County contractor received yet another delay as he appeared in court for a preliminary hearing on fraud and other charges. The hearing was for Joe Bray, a popular race car driver at the Tazewell dirt track . In his day job, Bray did business under the name of Bray Roofing.

In checking court records, we discovered civil and criminal charges for fraud against Bray. His first appearance in court was a few days ago.

In Claiborne County , Judge Robert Estep called the name of his next defendant in his courtroom. After months of waiting, roofing contractor Bray finally had his day in court, but it was postponed for the second time since mid-May. Court records show Bray has been charged with four felony counts of home improvement fraud for failing to refund money. Also, half a dozen other people have filed civil cases against Bray.

Warren Austin hired Bray to put a new roof on his home in New Tazewell. The contract was written on June 23, 2023. The amount paid to Bray was $4,000, half of the total charge. The new roof was supposed to be on the home by the end of July 2023, but Bray kept on stalling.

“During that time I kept asking him ‘When are you going to start?’ I got nothing but a bunch of excuses the whole time,” said Austin.

At Taylor’s Grove Missionary Baptist Church in Union County church leaders paid Bray $13,000 to buy building materials for a new roof. He never showed up to do the work in March 2023 and a second contractor was hired to finish the job.

Austin is one of Bray’s few customers to get money back. Austin went after Bray’s home in New Tazewell and won.

“I went to small claims court and I got a judgment against him and put a lien on his house. He recently sold his house and I got paid,” said Austin.

During Bray’s preliminary hearing last week, Judge Estep recused himself because of a conflict of interest. The case has been postponed until mid-August when a different judge will preside.

“I’ll be there and if they need me to testify I will,” said Austin. “I’ll tell [the judge] what happened.”

WATE’s Don Dare caught up with Bray outside the courthouse in New Tazewell.

“A lot of people want to know why you didn’t do the work when they gave you the money. Can you explain that?” asked Dare as Bray slammed his car door.

While he refused to talk with us, he’ll have to explain to the judge why he allegedly failed to honor contracts and what he did with his customers’ money.

At Taylor’s Grove Missionary Baptist in Union County, church leaders said they pleaded with Bray to finish the job. However, Bray claimed he was unable to work on the roof due to medical problems, then he stopped answering their calls. Court documents show that other former customers in three different counties had the same issue with Bray. The amount of money they had paid him, without any work being done, adds up to more than $30,000.

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