Partnership Turmoil and School Bathroom Debacle Unraveled
The turmoil among partners of Forsyth’s Big Peach company has unfolded in multiple episodes. Scene one started as a contentious dispute involving a physical altercation and led to police intervention when owners Wes Cone, Jeffery Shepherd, and brother Jon Shepherd forced their way into the offices after they said they were unable to access them. Allegations of document destruction against employees and family members of the fourth partner, Todd Rivers preceded the event, and rumors continue to mount about what may be behind it all. One of the Rivers’ daughters was hurt from a door being busted open. But no arrests were made and local authorities and the DA’s offices encouraged the parties to work things out through civil means.
According to authorities, it was reported that around the same time of the altercation Todd Rivers was no longer a partner. Authorities had to escort Mr Rivers and his wife, a former employee of the company, during a trip to retrieve belongings from the Big Peach offices. There were subsequent claims of Rivers’ property missing, further complicating the split. Again, local law officials said that there were no charges being brought up, and that the parties were going to deal with matters through the civil process. Up till now, Mr Rivers has remained silent on the entire matter, but has provided Monroe Matters with more of his side of the story.
Soon after Mr Rivers signed over his ownership in the company, he stated that he began getting calls and text messages from friends saying that they had heard very misleading information about the details of his transfer of ownership of the company. He said he further believes that these statements were / are being released with the intent of ruining his reputation.
Late in November, in a possibly related development, a construction project for school bathrooms in Monroe County, tied to former Big Peach partner Todd Rivers, was reported to be under investigation for contract discrepancies. Allegations include unauthorized use of Mr Scott Brown’s General Contracting license and of forging his signature, stalling the project and raising a litany of new concerns.
All of these events have Monroe County asking what in the world is going on at Big Peach?
The rumors swirl.
Multiple sources have recently shared with us that they’ve overheard one of the owners of Big Peach claiming that over a million dollars of funds had been stolen by Todd Rivers over the course of several years. Another source said the number was in the hundreds of thousands. But if this is true, why have there been no charges placed? Why is Sheriff Brad Freeman saying there has been no request for an investigation? As of this writing, there are still no charges pending or no investigation about alleged fraud within the company or related to the school bathrooms.
Why would anyone agree to just sign away their ownership of a profitable business?
Rivers says that it was his idea to leave the company. He began experiencing some health issues over the last summer and was feeling overworked and burned out. He, his wife, and two daughters were regularly working 60 hour weeks to maintain the car wash business, which had grown very rapidly. Rivers said he had asked for help but had not been granted any by the other partners and ultimately wasn’t happy with the direction the company was going. Rivers had been responsible for all new construction, development, and had always hired licensed general contractors and subcontractors to build the washes. Rivers says there was never a case where a licensed builder wasn’t engaged to perform the jobs, and that the rumors around him not being licensed were again an attempt to smear his reputation.
Rivers says that there is plenty of documentation that the Big Peach partners knew that Rivers’s license had lapsed and that all partners were very aware that Mr. Scott Brown of Homer, GA was doing work for Big Peach under his license. In fact, Rivers says this same format was used in the building of several Big Peach facilities and even the financial offices of Wes Cone’s financial advisory company in North Macon.
Regarding the School Board’s Bathrooms, Rivers stated that his involvement in the project was an effort to help save his local school district money. During the time of his employment with the board, he was proud to have saved the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars. He was trying to do this after being asked to bid on the project by someone inside the district and that he has documentation showing that both the Big Peach partners and Mr. Brown were in agreement about Mr. Rivers handling the contracting under his license. He believes that when he split off from Big Peach, Brown had to pick sides. Rivers said, it appears that Brown must have sided with Cone and the Shepherds before emailing the county on October 17th to let them know that he hadn’t been involved in the school board bathroom project, and that his licence had been used without his permission. But our sources say that is not true and that there is evidence to show that Brown had given his approval to do this project under his license as he had done many times before.
Rivers states that he is “deeply saddened” that the school board was brought into what he believes is a “personal dispute” between him and the other Big Peach owners, but that there has been no wrongdoing on his part.
Previous reports and rumors have led some to mistakenly think the bathrooms couldn’t be used because they weren’t complete. However, after contacting the Building Department, all necessary inspections were done during the building process and the building is eligible to get the certificate of occupancy (CO) as soon as a licensed builder signs off on it. As of the date of this writing, a local builder has agreed to stand in as the permittee for the project, and a CO is forthcoming. A video of the completed restrooms can be found through the QR code below.
Monroe Matters has discovered that all remaining owners and managing employees have been served with a cease and desist by Rivers’s attorneys. When asked for comment, Mr Cone stated he wasn’t able to share anything on the record at this time.
The story is still developing. We will continue to keep our readers informed.
