Feb 18
2025
In legal hot water again
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Erie County is suing a member of a now largely inactive local right-wing militant organization for “deceptive and illegal business practices.”
The lawsuit, filed last week by the Erie County Attorney, accuses Wayne Michalak and his company, WNY Backyard Enclosures, of bilking property owners out of “thousands of dollars in advance payment from consumers for home improvement services which he did not provide and/or complete.”
The county attorney wants the courts to ban Michalak and his company “permanently” from the home improvement business or, as an alternative, require him to post a $100,000 performance bond before entering into any future contracts. The lawsuit also seeks restitution for customers unhappy with the work he did — or didn’t do — since the company started doing business in 2021.
Back then Michalak, who already had a history of scrapes with the law, was an active member of the New York Watchmen, a local right-wing militant group that emerged in 2020 and 2021 and engaged in sometimes violent confrontations with opposing demonstrators.
Donate to support our nonprofit newsroomThe Watchmen were formed by West Fall resident Charles Pellien and others in 2020, when the country was roiled by pandemic shutdowns, protests against police misconduct and Donald Trump’s reelection campaign. Pellien told The Buffalo News at the time the group was “non-aggressive, non-violent, non-confrontational, non-racist,” but the group regularly showed up to demonstrations in tactical gear with weapons — and used them.
Michalak was among the Watchmen who skirmished with counter-protestors during a Dec. 19, 2020, demonstration in front of Buffalo City Hall. That protest against pandemic restrictions was attended by then-Erie County Comptroller Stefan Mychajliw, who was heckled by counter-demonstrators upon arrival. The confrontation soon devolved into a brawl in which one counter-demonstrator was beaten with a flashlight.
The video below was published by Buffalo United Resistance Network, a local group established about the same time as the Watchmen to “mount resistance against radical hate groups.” In the video, Michalak throws what appears to be a smoke grenade.
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“My flashlight was dented. Not sure if it was from head #1 or head #2,” Pellien posted on Facebook after the fight.
Pellien told The News that the organization was not racist and did not tolerate “ethnic supremacy.” That claim is belied by members like Michalak, who identifies himself on Facebook as a “Christian, white, straight, unwoke, unvaxxed.” When Trump first ran for president, Michalak posted, “Time to put another white man who cares about America back in the White House! I’m voting for #Donald Trump #Election2016.”
The Southern Poverty Law Center in 2020 categorized the Watchmen as an extremist anti-government militia, but the group has been inactive in recent years and has fallen off the SPLC’s most recent lists. One member, Brett Biro of Niagara Falls, last summer posted on Facebook that he was “looking for former ‘Watchmen’” to “start up again. This time just a little bit better…”
The phone number listed for WNY Backyard Enclosures was not accepting calls last week. Michalak did not respond to inquiries sent by email and social media.
Michalak and his company have been sued twice before, according to court records.
In December 2022 a Marilla man sued to get back his down payment on a job that he claimed Michalak never began. Michalak did not respond to the lawsuit and the Marilla man won a default judgment for nearly $32,000.
Michalak and his company were sued again in June 2023 by a company that claimed Michalak failed to pay $6,755 rent on office space he leased on Main Street in Williamsville. That lawsuit also resulted in a default judgment in the plaintiff’s favor.
The Erie County lawsuit illustrates its claims against Michalak with the experiences of three customers who say they paid him for work his company failed to perform.
- Richard Markiewicz of Amherst, who commissioned WNY Backyard Enclosures to build a backyard pavilion for $17,121, said Michalek’s work was incomplete and failed to meet town code. The county attorney is seeking $8,560 in restitution.
- Melissa McCaffery and Orlando Diaz of Elma paid a $4,430 deposit for construction of a cover for their backyard patio, but all they got was “four concrete holes in my backyard where posts for a patio structure were supposed to be installed,” according to McCaffery. Michalak agreed to refund $148 — he deducted what he claimed were material costs — but the check bounced, incurring a $20 fee. The county attorney is seeking $3,850 in restitution for the couple.
- Joseph Sciandra of Clarence hired WNY Backyard Enclosures to build a one-car garage and pavilion for $17,815. Michalak’s crew spent a total of a day and a half on the job, according to Sciandra, and failed to complete the job. The county attorney is seeking $11,746 in restitution for him.
Michalak had a checkered history long before he went into the home improvement business or began marching with the Watchmen.
In 1996 he was charged with bouncing a $2,568 check to buy a utility trailer, which he then sold, according to a Buffalo News report. Two years later he was arrested in Virginia Beach and charged with stealing a tractor-trailer containing $60,000 worth of coffee makers. He was sentenced to 14 months in prison and 36 months supervised release, according to court documents.
In January 1993, Michalak — then 20 years old — used his new ham radio kit to broadcast a fake distress call, pretending his airplane was crashing into Lake Ontario. The search-and-rescue effort that ensued cost taxpayers an estimated $31,000, according to a Buffalo News report, a figure that “does not include the thousands of dollars in wages lost by the hundreds of volunteers who chose not to go to work and instead searched the fields in the Town of Somerset along the shore of Lake Ontario.” A Niagara Gazette report said some officials estimated the search cost double that amount.
Michalak was sentenced to 60 days in jail and one year of probation for the hoax, and ordered to pay a $5,000 fine.
The Erie County Department of Public Advocacy in 2022 received a $2 million grant from the state attorney general to expand consumer protection efforts, which includes mediating disputes between business and dissatisfied customers. If mediation fails, the county attorney may choose to take legal action, as it has in the lawsuit against Michalak and his company. The parties are scheduled to appear on Feb. 18 before state Supreme Court Justice Edward Pace.
