On Thursday, Mobile County Circuit Court Judge Michael Windom delayed a restitution hearing for Gary Lamar Smith Jr., the former owner of SOS Towing in Mobile. The hearing will now take place on March 27 at 1 p.m.

Smith and his father had been charged, along with four other towing company owners, with criminal insurance fraud for allegedly overcharging insurance companies for towing services, a charge that Smith has strenuously denied.

The cases against the owners of Hero’s Towing and A+ Towing have been dismissed, but Smith’s and two other cases remain outstanding. Smith’s father, Gary Lamar Smith Sr., died before his case could be resolved.

Last month, the Mobile County District Attorney’s Office dropped the criminal charges against Smith but asked the court to require Smith to pay restitution of $8,946. Windom signed a restitution order for that amount on Feb. 23.

But Crystal Smith, Smith’s sister-in-law, argues that he never agreed to pay that amount, which would go to the insurance companies for alleged overcharges. All Smith agreed to, she says, was to audit the company’s towing records and refund any overcharges that were found.

In fact, Crystal argued that the Mobile Police Department had improperly calculated the amount of overcharges because it did not count certain fees, such as a second towing fee, as legitimate. An old Mobile city ordinance prohibited towing companies from charging more than $125 for towing a two-axle vehicle under 10,000 pounds, but did allow the companies to charge certain fees, she says.

Smith and his attorney, Chase Dearman, planned to dispute the restitution figure, and in the process, call witnesses. After tense negotiations, Dearman and Assistant District Attorney Clay Rossi approached Windom to ask for the hearing to be rescheduled.

Windom agreed, but Rossi asked that the court record reflect that Dearman requested the delay, due to the media attention on the case.

Smith and the other towing company owners were arrested in 2020, after the police department began investigating their companies in 2019. During the investigation, the companies were taken out of the city’s wrecking service rotation.