POMEROY — The man accused of cheating cemetery customers through a local cemetery and his own monument sales company is now the defendant in a personal injury lawsuit.

Ken Hobbs is accused of assaulting a neighbor with a crowbar a year ago, breaking his arm and rendering him disabled. Allen Young of Chester Road, Pomeroy, filed a personal injury lawsuit in Meigs County Common Pleas Court last week. The suit demands judgment in excess of $25,000.

According to the complaint, Hobbs allegedly assaulted Young with a metal object similar to a crowbar or tire iron on July 23, 2006.

Hobbs is a former employee of Meigs Memory Gardens and former operator of Beautiful Memories Monuments of Pomeroy. He is the subject of complaints by customers who say they ordered monuments from the cemetery, through Hobbs, or from Hobbs’ own business, and never received them.

Hobbs has been the subject of investigations by both Ohio and West Virginia attorneys general, and the subject of a local investigation, although no criminal charges are pending.

Earlier this year, West Virginia Attorney General Darrell McGraw ordered Hobbs to pay victims through his office for undelivered products. Hobbs was located in Kansas, but was not jailed.

Hobbs was imprisoned in Oklahoma in the 1990s on charges of forgery, concealing stolen property and possession of cocaine. Two years ago, Hobbs pleaded guilty to a charge of domestic violence in Meigs County Court and in 2006, was charged in that court with felonious assault. That charge was later dismissed.