MUNITOR CONSTRUCTION LLC

HOW MUCH DOES IT OWE? $1.38 million

WHO’S INVOLVED: Harley Meservey, former president of Munitor

THE BACKSTORY: Meservey, 52, began Munitor Construction in 2001 and ran the business until it shut down in early 2023. Meservey, who owns a home in Coos Bay and another in Portland, says he closed the business in part because his former bookkeeper, Susan Baird-Bagley, who died in early 2020, embezzled more than $800,000 from Munitor over a span of two years.

It all went south, according to Meservey, when Baird-Bagley “got together with a guy who ended up being a child sex offender, a check fraud and a business fraud. It’s really unfortunate because she was a complete straight shooter, we never had any problems and had no reason to mistrust her.” (Court records show Baird-Bagley’s husband is indeed a sex offender and has a criminal history.)

Munitor sued Baird-Bagley ’s estate and her husband after she died, alleging embezzlement. The filing alleges that the pair “caused or contributed substantially to Munitor incurring fees and penalties for nonpayment of payroll taxes.”

Meservey wants to leave Oregon because he’s “done” with it—he says homeless people routinely damaged his construction equipment.

“When you go out and try to do your job and people break in and steal your stuff every day, you can’t make that money back,” he says. Munitor has been sued 19 times since 2002, often by building materials companies alleging nonpayment for construction goods. A 2022 lawsuit alleges Meservey failed to pay $190,000 on a loan, and the Coos Bay Sheriff’s Office was ordered by the judge to collect the collateral—a number of construction trucks—from Meservey’s home. And a lawsuit filed just last week alleges he has failed to pay rent since December on two floating house slips at Jantzen Beach.

INTERESTING DETAIL: Meservey placed 82nd at a SCORE International Off-Road Racing competition in San Felipe, Mexico, in early April of this year. A YouTube video can be found of a dune buggy, driven by Meservey, racing over mounds of dirt at the same competition in 2021.

WHAT DOES HE SAY? Meservey says he’s working with the Department of Revenue to straighten out how much Munitor actually owes. Meservey says because the tax filings were filed improperly by the former bookkeeper, the state “just assumes a number and assigns it to you.” He estimates the amount he actually owes is “for sure more than zero” but “nowhere close to a million.”

WHAT THE BACK TAXES COULD BUY:

11,040 Narcan kits. SOPHIE PEEL.

THE BACKSTORY: In 2021, the Department of Revenue issued a $899,000 lien for personal income taxes between 2005 and 2011. How Daquilante made her money in the early aughts—and whether she still makes money—is a mystery.

There are no current or old businesses associated with her name in Oregon. Property and court records do show she owned a few properties in the metro area, at least two of which were foreclosed on by lenders around eight years ago for nonpayment of loans. (She did work for a time in human resources at Bob Lanphere’s Auto.)

A woman who attended high school with her in the 1960s, Jenny Martindale, tells WW that Daquilante “closed herself off from everybody years ago,” and said she hasn’t spoken to her in 15 years. Martindale says Daquilante wasn’t wealthy: “She was like the rest of us.”

It appears Daquilante, now 70, had a fraught marriage. Her ex-husband, David, died in the early 2000s and had a history of DUII charges, a hit-and-run charge, a vicious dog charge and charges for resisting arrest. Though they divorced in 1985, they battled over child support, and in 1992 he sued her, alleging fraud.

Daquilante has been a frequent flyer in Oregon’s civil courts. Collection agencies in recent years have gone after her for unpaid bills to the Portland Water Bureau and a house repairs company. The Internal Revenue Service issued two liens against Daquilante in 2013 and 2014 totaling $237,000.

Some or all of the taxes are still owed. A man who purchased Daquilante’s home in 2009, Lambert Adjibogoun, sued her over damage in the basement. A friend of Adjibogoun’s who rented the home from Daquilante at the time remembers meeting her for the first time at a court hearing.

“She was very pleasant. She was dressed very nice,” the friend recalls. “You could tell she’d been to the salon for her nails and hair, but she was also very kind even though she was getting sued.”

INTERESTING DETAIL: In 2021, the owners of a warehouse in Tigard filed an eviction complaint against Daquilante, where, according to filings, she rented 4,873 square feet of space for storage of household items, including furniture, clothes and appliances.

WHAT DOES SHE SAY? After multiple texts and phone calls asking for comment, Daquilante finally responded with a brief text Tuesday afternoon. “Perhaps next year,” she wrote. “Thank you.” In her voicemail greeting, she refers to herself in a husky voice as “Cougar Barbie.” Two of her children also did not respond to phone calls or texts.

WHAT

The Back Taxes Could

BUY: They could pay the annual salaries of 23 first-year teachers at Portland Public Schools. SOPHIE PEEL.