HARRISBURG—The presence of many out-of-area people coming to Harrisburg to assist in clean-up and recovery from the 2012 Leap Day Tornado was accepted and even welcomed in many cases.
However, questions have arisen over a Madison County man who has reported to Disclosure sources that he’s now set up a residence in Harrisburg.
And further concern has been displayed by these sources due to the fact that the man claims he’s “taken up with” a very well-known, well-thought-of, genteel woman whose husband’s exploits have made front-page news after court cases were brought out last year.
Whether or not this woman is supporting Dan Moutria, 51, is currently in question.
However, his past exploits, according to court documentation out of Madison County, show that there is a history of just that thing…and that Moutria has a large judgment against him in a 2013 case (amidst a handful of others in that county), in which there’s been little movement to pay back a woman to whom he’d become indebted, well over $40,000.
These documents show that Moutria, originally from Granite City, has been employed by the railroad in East St. Louis for a number of years and traveled all over.
The history of how the $43,000 debt began to be incurred originated in 2011 while Moutria was volunteering at a local food pantry in Madison County: he met the plaintiff, who also was volunteering at that location and shortly thereafter began racking up a number of monetary requests against both the plaintiff and her husband.
At first it was in amounts requested of both of them to the tune of $200 or $300 for random things (“to pay bills” was the general reasoning) but when the woman and her husband split and she became romantically involved with Moutria, that, documents show, was when the amounts grew in amount and frequency.
In one instance, Moutria had the woman to wait at his house because the cable company was threatening to cut him off for a due bill, amount not specified. When the cable company did show up, the woman was told that the amount was $360; and when she advised Moutria of that, he asked that she pay it and he’d pay her back…which he never did.
During 2012, court documents also indicate that the plaintiff allowed Moutria to use her American Express card in order to go on a mission trip while he was living in Collinsville. However, instead of limiting card usage to the mission trip, Moutria used it over three months’ time to purchase things such as St. Louis Blues tickets, to go to a NASCAR event, and a barrage of other items that ultimately totaled $8,500.
Other events such as the Amex card usage went on for two years, and even encompassed a downpayment for a house in Madison County for Moutria in the amount of $6,000 (with a promise of repayment “when my tax returns come in” and which never materialized, primarily because Moutria, records show, owed money to the IRS, not the other way around), and after various promissory notes were obtained from Moutria, the whole thing came to an end in 2013.
Having obtained yet another promissory note from Moutria, this one for a debt in the area of $60-65,000 (court documents did not specify the exact amount) the plaintiff finally obtained the services of an attorney, who approached Moutria about settling up in the amount of $43,000, as the plaintiff offered to forgive any interest on the original promissory notes (including the vague $60-65,000 one).
Moutria took that offer and a judgment was entered in case 2013AR522 (‘AR’ being arbitration) without having to file a Small Claims.
However, court documents show that payments have been intermittent and not substantial.
The situation seemed to be exacerbated when Moutria reported via Facebook posts that he’d moved to Harrisburg.
Both the plaintiff and Moutria had been to Harrisburg post-tornado, working with volunteers through Dorrisville Baptist Church. According to sources on the matter, Moutria became very close “buddies” with county board member/STORM organizer Joe Jackson and those two were “in charge” of rehabilitating four houses.
Past the Leap Day Tornado recovery, Moutria has also made public that he was working with a family out of Marion who are very prominent in that town for their money as well as their mission work.
Since Moutria has the significant debt against him in Madison County, as well as closed and pending debt cases there dating back to 2009 (six in all: Two for Midland Funding for over $2,500; one from Ardmore Financial Company for a few hundred dollars and one from Dell Financial Services for $2,185.71 in 2011; and one from American General Financing for $5,948.42 and one from Collinsville Quick Cash for $1,185.72 both in 2010; the 2009 cases are settled), it’s unclear how he could afford to suddenly move to Harrisburg and buy a house…unless someone else bought it for him.
The house is reportedly on Webster Street; the person Moutria himself has purported to have taken up with is the individual mentioned at the outset whose soon-to-be-ex husband has been in the spotlight recently, and whom Disclosure has been unable to contact prior to this article, so will not be named at this time.
Attempts to contact Moutria for two weeks prior to publication were unsuccessful; Disclosure attempted to call the number listed on Madison County court documents for him, submitted an email to his yahoo account, and even messaged his Facebook page, all to no avail.
The matter is of concern in Madison County because of failure to collect a debt that might result in further court action (garnishment/body attachment/arrest), but is of concern in Harrisburg because of so many questions that came about post-storm regarding the quality of people coming into Harrisburg to respond…and the motivations for each of them.
Expenditures of tornado funds have been questioned as well, with many funds literally missing in the chaotic months post-tornado, prompting many people to examine who they’ve had around them, and what they’ve been doing in the interim.