Judge sends Bergen County, N.J., contractor to jail.

Byline: Kibret Markos

Oct. 16--Robert Miller and Sara Lee Kessler hired a contractor in July 2002 to renovate their kitchen at their Englewood home.

Known affectionately among his clients as "Sparky," the contractor began work on the $23,000 job. He ripped out the floors, walls and cabinets of the kitchen, for which the couple gave him $14,500.

Then he disappeared.

"He just left it like that and vanished," said Kessler, an Emmy award-winning television journalist. "And it was freezing cold."

The couple hired a private investigator, who found that "Sparky" had done the same thing to at least seven other customers in Bergen County …