More Crime and Punishment

THE FORMER CHIEF OF THE LeROY FIRE DISTRICT in western New York was sentenced yesterday to serve 90 days in jail and be on probation for 5 years for stealing from his FD.

Stephen C. Smith

Stephen C. Smith was chief of the all-volunteer department from 2004 until January 2008 when he was arrested after a police investigation revealed he used the department credit card to make purchases for himself, used department gasoline for his personal car and added a personal cellular phone onto the district bill.  This past October, following a plea-bargaining agreement Smith pleaded guilty to 2nd-degree forgery in exchange for dropping several other related charges which included two counts each of first-degree tampering with public records, second-degree forgery and falsifying business records, and one count each of defrauding the government, grand larceny, and official misconduct.

WIVB-TV Ch. 4 Buffalo has this brief video report on yesterday’s action:

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The Batavia Daily News has the STORY.
LeRoy Fire District WEBSITE.

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A MATHEWS COUNTY, VIRGINIA, GRAND JURY HANDED DOWN an indictment yesterday (Tuesday) charging a retired Virginia state trooper with stealing more than $100,000 from the Mathews County Volunteer Fire Department. 

WTKR-TV Ch. 3 Norfolk reports:

Paul J. Reardon, described by his neighbors as a “law-and-order” guy and an upstanding member of the community, will face two felony charges. State police search warrants obtained last week by NewsChannel 3 show Reardon, the only person with access to the fire department bank accounts, wrote several checks to “cash” and made other unauthorized withdrawals in 2009. The warrants said new leaders on the fire department’s board discovered the missing money, asked for an investigation, and fired Reardon.

Tax records also obtained by NewsChannel 3 show Reardon prepared and signed the returns for the fire department that show the organization was in financial trouble, operating with a $183,000 deficit. The tax records also show the cost of fire-and-rescue service in Mathews jumped $119,000 in a single year. State police said the amount stolen from the fire department last year was $110,000.

Earlier this month, police seized the fire department’s account records from Bank of America and Chesapeake Bank, both in Mathews, as well as Reardon’s personal account records. Police also seized boxes of records from Reardon’s home.

Reardon had served as the VFD’s treasurer for 30 years.

WTKR-TV also filed this video report: