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In a Taney County courtroom on May 1, 2025, Stacy Sides sat silent, invoking her Fifth Amendment rights to nearly every question posed during a court-ordered examination about her finances.
Her refusal to answer – even basic questions about bank accounts and tax returns – represents the latest chapter in a years-long saga that has left dozens of victims across Missouri and Arkansas wondering if they’ll ever see justice.
The only question she was compelled to answer?
“How did you get here today?”
This scene encapsulates the frustration felt by victims of Brian Eddie Sides, a 50-year-old Missouri contractor whose trail of alleged fraud stretches back over a decade and spans multiple counties.
Despite court judgments now exceeding half a million dollars, Sides and his wife continue to operate businesses while using constitutional protections and legal technicalities to avoid paying most of their victims.
The most recent development came when Brian Sides paid approximately $19,000 to settle criminal charges in Taney County.
According to a spokesman with the Missouri Attorney General’s Office, the case involved a victim who complained he had paid Sides almost $15,000 two years earlier to install solar panels at his residence. No work was ever done and no refund was ever offered. The charges of deceptive business practices and financial exploitation of an elderly or disabled person were dismissed after Sides paid approximately $18,000 in restitution plus interest through mediation.
This payment stands in stark contrast to the dozens of other victims who remain unpaid, including elderly survivors of the 2011 Joplin tornado who have been waiting thirteen years for restitution.
According to court records, former Missouri State Attorney General Chris Koster won a lawsuit against Sides in 2012, with the contractor ordered to pay Betty VanOstran $14,500, Annette Merritt $8,455.38, and Andrea Grissom $6,000 for not providing services.
The case was reopened in 2022 after Sides never paid, despite the court order.
The pattern of invoking constitutional protections has become predictable. When faced with court-ordered financial disclosures, both Brian and Stacy Sides claim their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination. Brian first employed this strategy in April 2024 after felony charges were filed in Texas County.
According to court documents, Sides filed a “Motion To Vacate Writ of Body Attachment and Notice of Exercise of Rights,” invoking his Fifth Amendment protections after a grand jury found enough evidence to charge him with defrauding Mark Feltrop of $49,000 through his MyPowerGrid solar company.
Now Stacy Sides has followed the same playbook.
During the May 1 debtor’s examination, she asserted her Fifth Amendment rights and rights under the Missouri Constitution for every question posed. Judge Jeffrey Merrell, presiding over the Taney County proceedings, found himself limited in what he could compel. Relying on Nothum v. Kintz, he could only force Stacy to answer how she arrived at court and to provide case numbers and judgments – information already publicly available.
The judge gave her 15 days to produce these documents or face contempt charges.
The scope of Sides’ alleged fraud emerged most dramatically through the collapse of Whispering Oaks Luxury RV Park on Mallard Point in Baxter County. According to an affidavit filed by Duane Smith in April 2024, the scheme cost the Smith family $334,384.12. The court documents paint a picture of elaborate deception: Sides promised to invest $200,000 from a home sale but never owned the home, withdrew $6,062.50 from ATMs in Joplin and Las Vegas while visiting casinos, took another $7,705 from banks and ATMs in Branson, and allegedly funneled $20,010 back to himself through local laborer Mitchel Woodcock via an invoice payment scheme.
Woodcock, who now denies participation in the scheme despite what Smith characterized as earlier admissions, has threatened to sue the Observer on several occasions for reporting what was alleged against him in court documents.
The Smiths weren’t the only victims at Whispering Oaks.
Theresa Douglas, a 70-year-old grandmother raising six grandchildren after her daughter’s death, told the Observer in February 2024 that she paid Sides nearly $10,000 for a mini-split system after he learned one of her grandsons had nearly died from Croup. The system was never installed.
John Hart of Lakeview provided loans for construction and made his RV available for rentals, only to have Sides pocket the rental income and leave the trailer damaged.
Perhaps most troubling is the case of Tom Nottle, a man in his 90s with memory issues. According to his daughter Karen Nottle, her father was deceived into investing over $100,000 in Sides’s MyPowerGrid company and purchased Sides an $83,000 pickup truck. Sides allegedly quit paying after four payments, refused to return the truck, and then later convinced Nottle to rent it back to him.
The pattern repeated with a classic Volkswagen Beetle that Sides allegedly sold using fake titles.
The response from prosecutors has varied dramatically by jurisdiction. In Texas County, Prosecutor Parke Stevens Jr. pursued felony charges after Mark Feltrop brought his case forward, resulting in a January 2025 restitution order of $49,064. According to the judgment, Sides is required to make monthly payments at 9% annual interest, with the full balance due 30 days before the end of his probation. Failure to make payments could result in probation revocation. The Missouri Attorney General’s office took action in the recent Taney County case. But in Baxter County, where the largest fraud occurred, Prosecutor David Ethredge has declined to file charges despite extensive evidence provided by victims.
“The prosecutor keeps making excuses and keeps making a point to say that if he decides to file charges it’s not going to help people get their money back,” Duane Smith told the Observer in June 2024. “Yes, but what about holding people accountable for alleged crimes they commit, especially when it involves numerous victims and large sums of money?”
Ethredge told the Observer in October 2024 that he had not yet received an affidavit from the Sheriff’s Office and that investigators didn’t believe they could successfully bring charges due to the business partnership between Sides and the Smiths.
He suggested Sides would likely face prison in Missouri based on his discussions with prosecutors there.
Meanwhile, both Brian and Stacy Sides continue operating businesses. Court documents from May 14, 2025, list “mypowergrid llc and PURE TRANQUILITY MASSAGE @ SPA LLC” as businesses in which they have an ownership interest. Stacy’s massage business in Branson serves as the location for service of court documents.
The pattern of evasion is well-documented in court records. Sides was arrested for contempt on April 5, 2024, and released on $5,000 bond after refusing to produce financial documents. He claimed to need tax documents from Ozarks Business Services, but Michael Madewell of that company filed an affidavit stating that neither Sides nor MyPowerGrid were ever clients.
Multiple failures to appear in court and refusals to comply with court orders have become routine.
For victims like Mark Feltrop, the pursuit of justice has become a costly endeavor. According to the June 2024 Observer report, Feltrop had spent about $25,000 trying to recover the $50,000 initially stolen from him. Judge Chavez denied two contempt of court motions despite Sides’ refusal to comply with any court orders.
As of May 2025, civil judgments against the Sides exceed $500,000 across multiple jurisdictions. Criminal restitution orders have been issued in Texas County for $49,064, with the recent Taney County case resolved through payment.
The Smiths continue pursuing judgment debtor examinations in multiple counties, though Stacy’s invocation of the Fifth Amendment shows how difficult collection efforts have become.
For the dozens of victims – from elderly tornado survivors to grandmothers raising grandchildren – the wait for justice continues. Some, like the Joplin tornado victims, have been waiting over a decade. The recent payment in the Taney County case proves the Sides family can produce funds when facing criminal charges.
The question remains whether enough prosecutors will take action to provide that same motivation for the remaining victims, or whether constitutional protections will continue to shield the couple from accountability while their victims bear the financial burden of their alleged crimes.
