Seller of Pumps Chooses Prison Over Probation

A Ventura heat pump salesman who promised “free electricity extracted from the air” was sentenced Friday to state prison on felony fraud charges after he refused to accept probation.

Dennis M. Lee, 44, told Ventura County Superior Court Judge Robert J. Soares, “I would . . . rather have a prison sentence. I have no faith and no confidence in the probation department or any of the conditions they might set.”

He said he would not want to operate a business under the restrictions the probation department proposed. His business would have been supervised by the Ventura County probation office, had he accepted probation.

Soares sentenced Lee to serve three years and four months in state prison and to pay $4,940 in restitution to his victims. Soares gave Lee 426 days credit for 284 days he had already served in Ventura County Jail--part of it in lieu of $1-million bail--while awaiting trial.

Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. Kevin J. McGee said it is “really unusual” for someone to choose prison rather than probation. “It happens occasionally, usually with people that are upset at the system and, at the time of sentencing, decide to register their dissatisfaction.”

Lee vowed to appeal the sentence. He remains free on $20,000 bail but must surrender to serve his sentence unless he files the appeal by Friday, Soares said.

Lee pleaded guilty May 31 to eight counts of consumer fraud for selling marketing kits for his heat pump, including brochures and videotapes touting its ability to save customers money on their electric bills.

The kits falsely claimed that the heat pump was approved by Underwriters Laboratory, a safety-testing firm, and that Lee’s guarantee to buy back any equipment was backed by a bond placed with Merrill Lynch.

Lee’s attorney, William Cohan, called the prosecution of his client vindictive, citing the $1-million bail that kept Lee in jail for nine months and the probation office’s finding that there were no mitigating factors in his case.

“I see no consideration of the hundreds, if not thousands of satisfied customers,” Cohan said. “There is no consideration given to the need in this country to have people with vision, people with nerve, people with daring . . . to take on ideas” such as Lee’s heat pump, Cohan said.

“This case has involved a number of victims,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Rebecca Riley said. “This defendant made a number of misrepresentations that . . . people listened to, people relied on and people lost money on.”

Lee also broke his promise to refund customers’ money after he was arrested on fraud charges, Riley said. Lee owes $54,000 in unpaid freight charges to Federal Express Co. because he failed to pick up heat pump marketing kits that were returned by his customers, Riley told the court.

Soares said: “Many of these victims, had they been told everything that they should have been told . . . might not have invested” in the heat pump.

But Soares said he preferred to sentence Lee to probation rather than the state prison term recommended by Riley and the county probation office because his crime was one of improper disclosure, not violence.

“The court does intend to require that the defendant engage in business practices which are supervised and OKd by the court,” Soares said. “The defendant has shown to all of us that he is an energetic person. I don’t know if he believes all he says, but he has the ability to get other people to believe it and has almost a religious fervor about his abilities to bring others into his field.”