REBECCA "BECKY" BRYAN WAS FORMALLY ARRAIGNED ON MURDER charges Tuesday, accused of killing her husband Fire Chief Keith Bryan last September 20. The Nichols Hills, Oklahoma, fire chief was shot in his own home and Rebecca reported to the police that a man intruded into the house and said something about not being hired before killing him.
Her story quickly fell apart when detectives found the gun, ammunition and gloves inside the clothes dryer. Several witness statements also refuted her story and she was arrested two days later and charged with first-degree murder. Firegeezer reported on the crime and following activities at the time and you can read the story and following events HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE. She has been held without bail since then.
At yesterday's appearance Bryan, 53, pleaded not guilty to the charges. The judge set a motion hearing for June 26 and ordered her to remain jailed. He also set a tentative trial date for September 10.
RAYMOND BELLAVANCE, PREVIOUSLY CONVICTED for setting the fire that destroyed the Grand View Topless Coffee Shop in Vassalboro, Maine, was sentenced yesterday (Thursday) to serve 30 years in prison for the deed. The Kennebec Journal is reporting this morning:
Justice Michaela Murphy imposed the maximum sentence in Kennebec County Superior Court on Thursday.
Raymond Bellavance, 51, listens to his
sentence being handed down. (Kennebec Journal)
"In the view of this court, the defendant presents a profound threat to public safety and has demonstrated that on multiple occasions," said Murphy, who presided over the 10-day jury trial that resulted in Bellavance's conviction Dec. 30 on two counts of arson. Each count carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison, but they will be served concurrently.
Acting District Attorney Alan Kelley characterized Bellavance as incorrigible and recommended the 30-year sentence. "He is a very bad man who committed a very bad crime completely in character with what he has been and done his entire life," Kelley said.
Bellavance set the fire on June 9, 2009, at the small-town business located in a former motel. The coffee shop's owner and his family along with two others resided in the living spaces of the motel and had to flee for their lives from the fire. Fortuitously, the fire was discovered by a passing ambulance crew that just happened to be going by on their way back from a call.
AP / Joel
Firegeezer covered this story from the beginning with a report on the FIRE HERE. This was followed by a report HERE on the re-opening of the business under a tent while the former motel dining room was being rebuilt.
Later in the following December it was announced that the fire was an arson and that a warrant was issued for Raymond Bellavance. But he immediately beat feet to South Carolina where the U. S. Marshals found him in May 2010 (see Firegeezer report HERE). After being extradited back to Maine he had been held without bail since then.
In the trial several witnesses said that Bellavance was always hanging around the shop vying for the favors of one of the waitresses who was a former girl friend of his. He became angry when she rebuffed him while she was having a sexual affair with the owner whose wife and another two girlfriends of his also lived there. It gets complicated. The prosecution's key witness was a man who was with Bellavance that night and witnessed him setting the blaze.
WCSH-TV had a camera in the courtroom yesterday and filed this informative video report:
At his sentencing, Bellavance did not speak but did issue a written statement:
You can read the entire statement (.pdf) HERE. Bellavance has a lengthy criminal record already.
Crabtree gave up trying to re-establish the business last year and sold the property while moving to another community in Maine.
Read the detailed report on yesterday's court activity in the Kennebec JournalHERE.
THE FORMER CHIEF AND TREASURER OF A NEW JERSEY volunteer ambulance squad was arrested Monday and charged with hindering apprehension, third- and fourth-degree theft, witness tampering, obstruction and unsworn falsification. The case will be presented to a Burlington County grand jury for indictment.
James Daly, 42, was the Chief of the Beverly-Edgewater Park Emergency Medical Squad when, in May 2011, the treasurer became gravely ill and Daly took over the duties of the treasurer. The Beverly-Edgewater Park Squad is a volunteer organization that has paid administrative officers and 15 part-time employees. Within a few weeks of taking over the books, Daly phoned the accounting firm that handles their payroll and told them that he had just been given a $15,000 yr. raise above his current salary of $53,560 to $68,500. Next he began using the Squad's credit account to purchase gasoline for his personal cars.
When the county prosecutor's office began investigating Daly, he produced a letter purportedly written by another member stating that Daly had been given the go-ahead to use the county gas by the ill, and since deceased former treasurer. That letter was soon determined to be a forgery.
Following his arrest, Daly was released on $25,000 bond. He was dismissed from the squad's rolls in November 2011.
The Burlington County Times has more details HERE.
A PATERSON, NEW JERSEY, WOMAN was arraigned in state court Monday following an indictment handed down in January by a grand jury charging her with four counts of manslaughter. Florence Brown, 63, pleaded not guilty to the charges and was given until May 11 to post a $25,000 cash bond or be incarcerated until her trial.
Florence Brown (The Record)
On June 10, 2010, a fire swept through her 3-story home that had been divided into separate rental units housing nine people. Firegeezer posted a video report at the time HERE where we reported:
When firefighters arrived the wood-frame house was already well involved with many residents outside the house. The fire was spreading to the house next door and threatening the home on the other side. Before the fire was fully contained, the house of origin collapsed, completely destroyed. The second house suffered severe damages and the third house only superficial fire damage.
Two people leapt from 3rd-floor windows to escape the flames, with one of them dying immediately from the fall and the second in critical condition from multi-trauma injuries as a result of the plunge. Later, three bodies were recovered from the ruins of the house. It was not immediately known how many residents lived in the several rooms that were rented out. The owner escaped, and it was disclosed that she had been issued several fire code violations in recent months.
AP
Reporting on yesterday's court action, John Petrick of the North Jersey Record writes:
The charges arise out of an investigation conducted by the Arson Unit of the Passaic County Prosecutor's Office, as well as the Paterson Police Department and the Paterson Fire Department. The fire occurred about 4 a.m. in the basement of the three-story house Brown owned. The fire was caused by an electrical overload because of faulty wiring, authorities have said.
Two outlets and two power strips supplied electricity to three floors of the rooming house, residents of the building had said at the time.
The building had been cited for code violations in January 2010 — six months before the fatal fire — when firefighters who were dispatched to investigate a defective boiler found exposed wires and uncovered electrical panels in the basement. A fire inspector warned in a report that unless the violations were corrected, a "future mishap" could ensue. A follow-up inspection on May 20 of that year found some of the same problems.
Read the full story in The RecordHERE.
Review the Firegeezer video report from June 2010 HERE.
A DARWIN, AUSTRALIA, AIRPORT FIREFIGHTER WAS CHARGED yesterday for a highway crash that killed three people back in August 2011.
ABC News
At the time, Firegeezer reported HERE on August 7:
A major fire broke out in a warehouse in the suburb of Berrimah around 7 am Sunday and the fire officers on the scene requested a foam unit from the airport for assistance. The responding fire-rescue-crash truck was en route to the fire when it collided with an SUV at an intersection with a side road. Four people were in the car and two of them died on the scene, a man and a woman. A third passenger was seriously injured and the fourth had only minor injuries.
After that posting the third injured person died in the hospital. All of the passengers were architects. Two of them, Greg McNamara, 45, and his wife Lena Yali, 43, were the principals of Troppo Architects in the Northern Territory.
Jack David Norris appeared in court Monday where the charges were placed against him for entering an intersection against a red light, driving negligently and driving dangerously, causing harm or death. Davis will return to court in June. Via: 7News.
FIRE AND EMS AGENCIES' FAVORITE WEAPON, the Opticom traffic signal preemption device is now readily available to the public thanks to the internet. It seems the world wide web has more places selling bootleg devices or DIY kits than Chicago has traffic lights.
Wattco graphic
The area around San Diego, California, is seeing them sprout up like dandelions over the septic tank these days and the city of Carlsbad is cracking down on the illegal use of the devices. The Carlsbad Patch is reporting:
According to a Carlsbad Police press release, "on March 27, traffic engineers and police officers responded to a traffic signal on Armada Drive and detained a driver who was found to be using an 'emergency vehicle preemptor.' As a result the motorist was cited for the illegal possession and use of the device, and the preemptor and associated parts were impounded." The driver also faces a fine starting at $2000.
Emergency vehicle preemptors are used legally by fire departments in situations where they need to change red lights to green.
Police were contacted two weeks ago when the city transportation staff at the city’s new Traffic Management Center registered an irregularity with traffic signals. After an investigation, traffic engineers found motorists appeared to be using signal preemption devices to change the signals.
The city is letting people know that the traffic-flow monitoring cameras that are attached to the traffic signal poles are capable of detecting the infrared signals coming off the vehicles and their photo is being taken.
KGTV Ch. 10 posted this video report on the signature bust:
IT WAS ONE MONTH AGO TODAY when Firegeezer told you about the Kalgoorlie, West Australia, couple who were caught after setting up to 40 arsons over a period of ten months in their area. From our article of March 4:
Alan Robert Sloane, 32, and Rebecca Louise Sloane, 29 admitted in court to at least 19 arsons, all committed at random on nighttime larks. Their evenings would begin with hiring a babysitter to watch their 2-yr.-old twins while they went out for dinner. Following their meal they would drive around and look for likely targets to set alight.
You can read the full story and details of their nocturnal adventures HERE.
The Sloanes at an earlier court appearance.
The Sloanes were sentenced today (Wednesday) in the West Australian Supreme Court by Judge Lindy Jenkins. The News continues:
Mr Sloane, a mechanic, was jailed for nine years and nine months on 19 counts of arson and stealing. He will be eligible for parole after seven years and nine months.
His wife was jailed for 14 months after pleading guilty to seven counts of arson. She will be eligible for parole after seven months.
The judge said she accepted the couple were drunk most of the time they committed the offences, but could offer no other reason for their actions apart from "having a break" from their young twins.
"You say that the offences were committed in the context of both you and your husband having a break from the children, getting a babysitter, driving around your area and then committing these offences," Judge Jenkins addressed Rebecca Sloan. "You say you experienced fear and anxiety during and immediately after your offending but that did not stop you from reoffending."
The judge also noted that Alan Sloane had set fire to curtains through an open window while the elderly occupants were showering and sleeping inside. On several occassions he used a fuel to start fires in dwellings, then notified the fire brigade and helped them put out the same fires.
It was also disclosed that the Sloane's twin daughters, now age 2, were born prematurely with a resulting mental disability that required constant care by the parents which added pressure to their own health. But a psychiatric examination determined that while the parents did have a personalty disorder, they were not suffering from mental illness.
The children will be cared for my Mr. Sloane's parents while they are serving their terms.
THE RHODE ISLAND ETHICS COMMISSION has decreed that they have found "probable cause" that Lime Rock FD Chief Frank Sylvester has "used his public office for financial gain by registering and parking multiple cars at the district fire station for more than two decades, rather than at his home in Pawtucket."
That financial gain is estimated at as much as $10,673.50, according to the commission's investigative report.
A probable cause finding is not a finding of guilt. It represents sufficient evidence "that reaches beyond mere suspicion," a threshold for moving the case to adjudication.
Sylvester has been fire chief of the 2-station department since 1988.
WPRI-TV Ch. 12 filed this brief video report:
Online newspaper GoLocalProv broke this story 19 months ago when they reported:
Frank Sylvester, the fire chief for the Lime Rock Fire District in Lincoln, registered two of his personal cars in Lincoln this year— a 2007 Lexus and a 2006 Ford Explorer. The tax rate on cars in Lincoln is $30.66 per $1,000 of the assessed value—compared to a rate of $53.30 in Pawtucket, which is the second-highest one in Rhode Island.
Sylvester paid a total of $1,245.56 in taxes on those cars to Lincoln, according to town tax records obtained by GoLocalProv. Had he paid taxes on those cars at the Pawtucket rate, he would have owed nearly $900 more in taxes, or $2,122.67 to be exact.
In 2009, Sylvester registered a third car in Lincoln—a 2003 Ford T-bird. In fact, tax records show that he has been registering one or more of his cars in Lincoln at least since 2004. And he has admitted to GoLocalProv that he has been registering his cars at his workplace since he became fire chief in 1988.
Sylvester told GoLocalProv he does not believe he is doing anything wrong. But if he were, he would be happy to register his cars in Pawtucket. "If it’s not right, I’ll change it, but it’s not against the law," Sylvester said. "I’m not breaking any law."
He said he started registering his cars at the fire station when he first started out as fire chief because he was using them to plow the driveway around the station. He continues to register the cars there, even though he stopped handling the plowing several years ago.
Sylvester has the law on his side, however. When he checked on the legality of his tax-dodge a few years ago, an attorney at the DMV told him that what he was doing did not violate any of their laws. We don't know if this conflicts with the town or city ordinances, though.
REBECCA BRYAN OF MUSTANG, Oklahoma, was arraigned last week on charges that she murdered her husband Keith Bryan, Fire Chief of Nichols Hills Fire Department, last September 20.
Keith Bryan (KOCO-TV)
On September 21 Firegeezer carried the story of the surprising murder of Chief Bryan by what was initially reported by his wife as having been committed by a man who walked into their house and shot Bryan in the head and then left. Read the early reports HERE and HERE for the background on the crime. All of the initial information was provided by his wife Rebecca ("Becky").
Two days later, Rebecca was arrested at a motel where she was staying and charged with first-degree murder of her husband. Read the Firegeezer report on the turn of events leading to her arrest HERE.
Rebecca Bryan before September 20 (left) and after.
Her first court appearance was held last Wednesday when she was arraigned in Canadian County District Court. During the hearing the court took testimony from four witnesses. Excerpts from the four testimonies as published in the The Oklahoman follow:
After the shooting, (Debbie) Proctor said Rebecca Bryan called her and asked her to come over.
On the way to the hospital to check on Keith Bryan, Proctor testified that Rebecca Bryan showed the people in the car a picture of another man's penis on her phone. She testified that Bryan told them she had sex with the man, one of her real estate clients, earlier that day and felt guilty because of the shooting.
Bryan also showed them a text message she sent to a former lover about inheriting a significant amount of money soon and moving to Hugo.
The man, identified as Mark Holbrook, testified that Bryan also called him three hours before the shooting. He said the last time he spoke to her before the shooting was in February 2011. The night of the shooting she called him and he hung up on her, he said.
(He admitted that he had a 1-year affair with Rebecca that ended prior to the shooting.)
Mustang police officer James Davis testified Wednesday that he approached Rebecca Bryan in the garage after the 911 call, and she started talking to him about a burglary case he worked in the past rather than telling him details about the shooting.
Davis said he had to ask Bryan where her husband was. "I had to ask her to take me to him," he said.
Mustang Detective Camie McNeil testified Wednesday that Rebecca Bryan was also laughing at the scene.
McNeil testified she was collecting gunshot residue and Bryan thought it was funny.
"Bryan said she watches ‘CSI' and knows all about this stuff," McNeil said.
Read the full article including more details from the testimonies in The OklahomanHERE.
In order to provide more time for the state to question more witnesses, the judge continued the hearing until April 4.
A FLAP IS ARISING IN SUSSEX COUNTY, Delaware, over an illegal tire burn carried out by a state legislator, Representative John Atkins. Not only was the burning illegal, but a state environmental control officer was purportedly misled by the Georgetown fire chief who told the agent that the fire was brush only and nothing that needed to be investigated. The burn took place on the farm belonging to Atkins' father-in-law, David Baker, and Atkins was at the scene of the fire during the event.
We should mention that Atkins sits on the House Natural Resources Committee that reviews environmental legislation before the state. Not only was Atkins at the burn, but two prison work-release inmates were also there providing labor for the task. Apparently it was a day-long controlled brush fire, which was ok, but after it got dark the tractor tires and others were added to the pile.
Tires are plainly visible in this photo taken
by Gary Conaway (Delmarva Now)
It gets better…. Delmarva Now is reporting:
The unusual (investigation) by the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control was prompted by letters written by a former state trooper who allegedly punched Atkins during a dispute over the illegal burning, said David S. Small, the agency's deputy secretary.
The former trooper, Dennis A. Schirmer, was charged by state police with terroristic threatening and offensive touching after the Feb. 20 altercation.
A follow-up investigation led to charges being filed against Baker only, leaving Atkins and the prisoners free. Atkins has been in trouble before. In 2007 he was forced to resign from the state House of Representatives after flashing his credentials to get out of a speeding ticket. In another instance he was charged with a domestic violence incident involving his wife.
The former trooper only served 11 years on the force because he was forced out. Delmarva Now explains:
Schirmer was a state trooper for 11 years until resigning in July 1997. Police would not say why he resigned, but Schirmer said it was because he had sex in his state-issued cruiser with an intoxicated woman he was transporting in a domestic case and had previously dated. "I messed up," Schirmer acknowledged.
In this recent incident that was reopened as a result of Schirmer's letter to the Sussex County prosecuter, DelmarvaNow continues:
Schirmer and Conaway, who live nearby, drove onto the property after noticing that the sky was "completely black" and "looked like something out of the Armageddon movie," Schirmer wrote. The men argued with Atkins, and after what Schirmer described in his letter as "the incident," a state police detective went to the scene.
Police later arrested Schirmer, 52, for allegedly punching Atkins in the face and, after Atkins said he would let his dog out of his truck, threatening to kill Atkins and the dog. Conaway was charged with terroristic threatening for allegedly yelling at Atkins that he would "knock the hell out of you," the arrest affidavit said.
There is plenty more, including the fire chief's conflicting statements as to whether he was there or not, and the changing testimonies from the prisoners, one of whom is a convicted forger and the other a habitual drunk-driver.
PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA, FIREFIGHTERS HAVE A SPECIAL relationship with the magistrate, it seems. Up until about a year ago, Firegeezer was reporting on an almost-weekly basis about firefighters being arrested for all kinds of punishable offenses and the fire chief was going bonkers trying to get them to behave. It has been very quiet on that front lately, but last Thursday the peace was broken when the local newspapers and tv stations learned that the PFD has suffered still another embarrassment, this time at the instigation of a Deputy Chief.
Police reports say that on February 27, Deputy Chief Michael Mullen, 55, attacked a patron in a southside bar and started beating on him. When a few patrons and the bartender, along with the bar manager, got the two men separated, Mullen then hauled off and punched the bar manager in the face. It was then that they called the police who came and took a report. On March 7 the police filed a misdemeanor assault charge against Mullen and the word got out. As often happens, the Fire Chief Darryl Jones learned about it from the news reports because Mullen never reported his arrest to his superior.
Dep. Chief Michael Mullen (KDKA image)
The city's Public Safety Director Michael Huss is pretty steamed about this because Mullen has been in trouble many times during his 37-year career. KDKA-TV tells us:
"It’s a big problem and it’s not the example we expect, it’s very embarrassing to the city and to the fire bureau and it’s something ….," Public Safety Director Michael Huss said. "He’s had issues in the past and we tried to prevent him from being promoted, but the courts told us we had to promote him."
"In retrospect, I wish the courts hadn’t done that," Huss added.
Huss said Mullen should not be a deputy chief.
Huss is interviewed in this video report from KDKA that includes the surveillance tape of Mullen's criminal behavior:
A KALGOORLIE, WEST AUSTRALIA, COUPLE PLEADED GUILTY Friday to committing a string of arson attacks on homes, businesses and abandoned cars over a period of more than a year. They gave no explanation for their actions that apparently were done simply for the thrill of it.
Alan Robert Sloane, 32, and Rebecca Louise Sloane, 29 admitted in court to at least 19 arsons, all committed at random on nighttime larks. Their evenings would begin with hiring a babysitter to watch their 2-yr.-old twins while they went out for dinner. Following their meal they would drive around and look for likely targets to set alight.
Alan and Rebecca Sloane leaving their arraignment hearing
in November at Magistrate's Court in Perth.
Mr Sloane pleaded guilty to 19 charges of damaging property by fire including two when he threw molotov cocktails through open house windows in South Kalgoorlie.
He regularly lit fires for more than six months before his wife realised what was happening. Mrs Sloane then started driving her husband around Kalgoorlie Boulder late at night looking for things for him to burn, including cars, a caravan and an industrial bin.
She pleaded guilty to seven counts of arson though she never struck a match herself. Ms Sloane made no attempt to stop her husband's arson.
It was brought out in court that the Sloane's nocturnal sparking has been going on for more than a year. The article continues:
On January 10 last year Mr Sloane was walking in South Kalgoorlie at 11pm when he saw an open window so he lit the curtain. The occupants put the flames out.
On January 23 and 26 he threw molotov cocktails through open windows and on February 6 dropped lit newspapers into a yard.
Another time he used methanol to set an abandoned house on fire. He also stole a car from his work, drove it into bush and set it alight.
Rebecca Sloane has been remanded on bail but her husband is being retained in custody until their sentencing in April. They are both facing a possibility of life sentences.
Their arrests last November were the culmination of a 9-month task force investigation dubbed Operation Twain that was looking into a string of more than 40 arsons in the area.
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FOUR YEARS AGO IN MAY 2008, Firegeezer reported on a tragic story about a Cranston, Rhode Island, fire lieutenant who was shot and killed by his next-door neighbor during a children's birthday party being held on the front lawn. We also covered the bail hearing and then a year later we followed the trial where Nicholas Gianquitti was tried for murdering Lt. James Pagano. We wrote in our original posting:
A CRANSTON, RHODE ISLAND, FIREFIGHTER James Pagano was hosting a birthday party for his son’s 9th birthday on the front lawn of his house Sunday. When one of the kids’ ball went into his next-door neighbor’s yard, he came out and accosted Pagano. Then the neighbor, Nicholas Gianquitti, went back into his house and came out with a gun, then started shooting at Pagano.
The firefighter was trying to shield the children from the gunfire when he was fatally struck in the back. Lt. Pagano had just been promoted this January and worked at Cranston FD station 1.
The following year in March 2009, Gianquitti was tried and found guilty of 2nd-degree murder and discharging a firearm in the commission of a violent crime. The judge sentenced him to 40 years with 20 to serve for the 2nd-degree murder conviction. He then imposed a mandated life sentence for using a firearm while committing a violent crime. It will take 34 years before Gianquitti will be able to apply for parole and he will be age 75 then.
Today, Friday Gianquitti appeared with his lawyer before the same judge asking for the 20-yr. sentence to be reduced to 10 years which would create a possibility for parole in 25 years instead.
A Superior Court judge Friday denied a motion for a reduction in sentence for a former Providence police officer, convicted of killing a neighbor in a fight over a child's tennis ball.
"You, Mr. Gianquitti shot him in the back, chased him as he fled unarmed from your doorstep and shot at him again, then you stood over him with a gun pointed at his head and taunted him as he lay dying, and for this you seek leniency? In no way is clemency a reward for that criminal conduct," said Krause, addressing Gianquitti before the court.
Prosecutor Lauren Zurier recognized the impact of his sentence on Gianquitti's family as "indeed harsh, however it is equally, I would say quite more harsh on the Pagano family. The Gianquitti family gets to see the defendant once a week at the ACI. There are no visiting hours for Jim Pagano anymore."
WPRI-TV filed this video report from the courtroom today:
THE ONTARIO GOVERNMENT FINANCE MINISTRY has cleaned house at the scandal-plagued air ambulance service, Ornge. A government spokesman revealed yesterday (Wednesday) that the government has assigned 28 forensic auditors to the offices of Ornge where they are working night and day to wade through the labyrinth of private, for-profit companies that Ornge insiders had set up to possibly funnel money away from the agency and into the private coffers.
The four directors of the air ambulance charity were asked to step down immediately, which they did, and a hand-picked group was appointed to a new 7-member board. The directors that were tossed were receiving salaries while the new board is all-volunteers made up from respected business leaders.
The Toronto Globe & Mail adds:
The ouster of the board came one day after Mr. McKerlie terminated 18 administrative jobs at head office. As well, Maria Renzella, executive vice-president of corporate services, has gone on medical leave, according to sources. She is the second top executive to do so – Ornge founder and chief executive officer Chris Mazza went on "indefinite" medical leave in December.
Health Minister Deb Matthews is on the defensive over Ornge. Ms. Matthews was aware that Ornge planned to create new business ventures that would make money by trading on the expertise of the taxpayer-funded air ambulance service. Ornge was to receive just 3 per cent of the revenue from these businesses, and the new ventures would pocket the balance, according to a copy of a Stakeholder Briefing dated Jan. 19, 2011 and signed by chairman Rainer Beltzner.
Ornge is responsible for performing life-saving CPR on patients and ferrying them from accident scenes to a hospital. But it is also facing questions about whether patient care was compromised. The Globe has reported that the Health Ministry's Emergency Health Services Branch is investigating 13 cases, including three deaths. Most of these incidents relate to complaints about either response times or the adequacy of Ornge's new helicopter fleet.
Ornge was established as a charity but has seemingly been turned into a cash cow for the directors and administrators. The Toronto Star goes right to the core of the scandal, reporting:
Scandal has dogged the service since mid-December, with revelations by the Star of high salaries and executive perks, secrecy, less than speedy ambulance dispatches and some mysterious payments from overseas.
What McKerlie did not mention in his email to staff is that very few of the dollars the foundation received since it was created four years ago came from public and patients.
Instead, the money (and gifts like two fancy motorcycles painted orange) came from companies like Pilatus, which sold 10 single-engine airplanes to ORNGE at an estimated total cost of $40 million for use as air ambulances.
In one case, a press release from ORNGE noted that Pilatus donated $343,000 to the Foundation. When ORNGE purchased $144 million worth of helicopters (12 in total) from Agusta Westland, Agusta made a $6.7 million payment to an ORNGE for-profit and gave two orange "choppers" to the Foundation. Another former asset of one of the ORNGE charities was a $50,000 speedboat that founder Chris Mazza wanted to use to teach youth how to wakeboard and water ski safely.
THE WESTMONT, ILLINOIS, VILLAGE MANAGER announced on Monday that Fire Chief Frank Trout remains on unpaid administrative leave following his suspension on December 31.
The day before, on December 30 Chief Trout was arrested by the DuPage County Sheriff's office and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol, driving too fast for conditions and failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident after his vehicle struck a parked car. He has a court date scheduled for January18.
Trout was previously a Westmont police officer, rising to sergeant before he was appointed Fire Chief in 1992. His duties are currently being handled by Deputy Fire Chief Dave Weiss.
SALISBURY, MARYLAND, FIRE CHIEF JEFF SIMPSON resigned suddenly on Monday just 14 months after taking the position. He was hired in November 2010 following an extensive search by the city and had come from the Hanover County, Virginia, Fire Department.
Daily Times photo
His short resignation letter read: "Life circumstances are such that I am afforded the opportunity to pursue personal and professional interests and I kindly wish to take advantage of those opportunities at this time."
Has already relinquished his duties and Deputy Chief Rick Hoppes is serving as interim chief. Tuesday the mayor announced that he will put Chief Hoppes' name to the city council to be appointed permanent chief.
THE MASTERMIND BEHIND THE FATAL ARSON of a casino in Monterrey, Mexico, has been arrested. Baltasar Saucedo Estrada, 38, nicknamed "dog-killer" is alleged to be a local leader of the Zetas drug cartel. The outrageous daytime arson of the Casino Royale on August 25 killed 52 people and shocked the nation.
Reuters
Firegeezer reported on the fire HERE and showed the surveillance videos documenting the raid of the gang members into the casino HERE. Reputedly, the action was taken against the casino owner because he refused to pay "protection money" in an extortion scheme.
So far 20 people who were participants in the raid have been arrested including the regional leader of operations of the cartel (HERE).
Saucedo was arrested Thursday after he crashed his car while trying to outrun police officers who were chasing him. Inside the car they found a large amount of cash and coccaine.
AP
Saucedo had a $1 million bounty on him. Reuters has filed this video report on this week's capture:
THE 2-½ YR. SAGA OF THE INFAMOUS GRAND VIEW Topless Coffee Shop arson in Vassalboro, Maine, has concluded. On Friday (Dec. 30) a jury convicted Raymond Bellavance, now 50, on two counts of felony arson that carry a maximum sentence of 30 years imprisonment each. The trial lasted ten days and included a variety of unusual witnesses and Bellavance's own self-testimony. The verdict was handed down at 5:50 pm.
Raymond Bellavance
Bellavance claimed that he was nowhere near the shop when it burned down on June 3, 2009. But an eyewitness who was with him that night told the jury that he saw Bellavance splash gasoline around the outside of the former motel building and light it. At the time of the fire, the coffee shop owner was sleeping inside the living quarters as well as his wife, their two young children, and two older daughters who also lived there with their boyfriends.
AP / Joel photo
Firegeezer covered this story from the beginning with a report on the FIRE HERE. This was followed by a report HERE on the re-opening of the business under a tent while the former motel dining room was being rebuilt.
Later in the following December it was announced that the fire was an arson and that a warrant was issued for Raymond Bellavance. But he immediately beat feet to South Carolina where the U. S. Marshals found him in May 2010 (see Firegeezer video report HERE). After being extradited back to Maine he has been held without bail since then.
In the trial several witnesses said that Bellavance was always hanging around the shop vying for the favors of one of the waitresses who was a former girl friend of his. He became angry when she rebuffed him while she was having a sexual affair with the owner whose wife and another two girlfriends of his also lived there. It gets complicated.
WMTW-TV Ch. 8 filed this video report on the day before the jury began deliberations:
A complete summary of the trial and the accusations and counter-accusations was published by the Kennebec Morning SentinelHERE.
The Kennebec Journal has MORE.
Grand View follow-up: Earlier this year in May, the owner Donald Crabtree announced that he was giving up trying to stay in business and would close soon. Besides the expense of rebuilding and declining business, the local government kept a flurry of ordinance violations coming his way to the point where he could not take any more. Crabtree said the final straw for him was the recent notice from the town of violations over large signs he set up. One advertised a benefit topless car wash, while a portable sign proclaimed: "Boobies Wanted." He said he removed the signs after he was given seven days by the code officer to do so or else face legal action. Read that Firegeezer report HERE.
A FORMER VOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTER WITH THE MINOT, Maine, fire department pleaded guilty Thursday to an arson charge.
Joshua Michaud (WMTW -TV)
Joshua Michaud, now 20, was charged with starting a fire in July 2010 in a restaurant that caused $30,000 in damage. Witnesses said that they saw Michaud near the restaurant dressed in his turnout gear before the fire alarm was sounded. After determining that the fire had been deliberately set, the fire marshal arrested him following an interview where Michaud admitted setting the fire.
The fire scene in July 2010 (WMTW-TV)
The young man has no prior criminal history and has a lengthy list of character references from leading citizens which led to the judge delaying sentencing until June to see how well an intensive counseling program that he is undergoing will turn out.
The Sun Journal has a good report on this rehab program and the related information on the case HERE.
RICHARD AND RANDALL CARR, BROTHERS AND FORMER paid-on-call firefighters in Mahoning County, Ohio, were sentenced yesterday for stealing money from the Beaver Township Fire Department after pleading guilty to felony theft last month (See Firegeezer video report HERE). Following an audit, it was found that they had been backdating time sheets to indicate that they had been responding to incidents, yet never showing up at the scene.
The Youngstown Vindicator reports this morning:
Two former Beaver Township firefighters accused of theft were sentenced Wednesday to two years of probation, 250 hours of community service, and they were ordered to pay restitution. They were sentenced by Judge Maureen Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
Randall Carr and Richard Carr Jr. were instructed to pay $3,861.19 and $2,559, respectively, in restitution to Beaver Township, per the prosecutor’s recommendation, according to court records.
The Beaver Township Fire Department is volunteer, but stipends are provided to ranking officers. Volunteers are paid a nominal fee for each call they respond to. Randall Carr was an assistant chief and received $550 each month; Richard Carr was a lieutenant and received about $110 a month, the fire chief has said.
Both men were placed on paid administrative leave in June when the investigation began, and part of their restitution is the monthly salaries they received during that time, records state.
Richard Carr Jr. also resigned his second-grade teaching job in the South Range school district at the school board’s Nov. 21 meeting.
WKBN-TV Ch. 27 had their camera in the courtroom Wednesday and filed this video report:
EDER ROJAS, THE FORMER FLIGHT ATTENDANT who set a fire in his airplane's bathroom was convicted and sentenced Friday to nearly 7 years in prison.
(Fargo PD)
His saga began 3-½ years ago in May 2008 while he was working a Compass Airlines flight from Minneapolis to Regina (Saskatchewan). Rojas, reportedly angry with being assigned to an unpopular route, took a lighter and set the paper towels on fire in the lavatory while the plane was in flight. Rojas, along with another attendant and a passenger, put out the fire with extinguishers as the plane made an emergency landing in Fargo, North Dakota.
Read the full story in earlier Firegeezer reports HERE and HERE.
While awaiting trial, he was ordered to stay in a halfway house in Chicago where he later walked out in the middle of the night and fled to Mexico. When he failed to appear for his trial, the judge ordered the U. S. Marshal to find Rojas and bring him to the court. (See Firegeezer HERE.)
Three years later, the FBI and the U. S. Marshal tracked him down to Iguala, Guerrero, Mexico and had him arrested on March 26 of this year. (Firegeezer HERE.)
In this week's trial Rojas said that he was very sorry and would accept any punishment handed out. Not buying his croccodile tears, Judge Erickson said Rojas did not truly accept responsibility for the crime. "You ran away, you had to be extradited," Erickson said. "I'm not going to reward that behavior today, tomorrow, or ever."
Erickson sentenced him to 74 months and ordered him to pay a more than $100,000 fine, most of which will go towards compensating Compass Airlines for damage to the bathroom and the cost of emergency accommodation for passengers.
The Associated Press has the full story on the verdict and sentencing HERE.
THE LEWISBERRY COMMUNITY FIRE COMPANY in York County, Pennsylvania, had to close its doors and cease operating in September when it could no longer pay its bills.
This Tuesday police arrested and charged Jennifer Cassada, 37, and Markwood Albright, 37, with theft. Cassada is the department's former president and treasurer while Albright is the former fire chief. Investigators said the two, who were romantically involved, had taken and spent more than $11,000 on personal items and pleasures.
The fire company could no longer pay workers compensation, municipalities dropped its services so it no longer responded to calls, and it was evicted from the fire hall, (Police Chief John) Snyder said.
Members of the fire department had suspicions about how the money was being used, Snyder said, but it took some time to get access to the accounting books.
The investigation began in October 2010 and was passed on to Newberry Township Police from the York County District Attorney's Office in October 2011.
Sgt. Steven Lutz with Newberry Township Police was head of the investigation and found that $4,373 had been spent on a Caribbean cruise, $1,288.38 was used to purchase items online through PayPal, $6,154.14 was used to pay utility bills and $8,990 in cash withdrawals were taken from the general account and the fireman's relief account for no apparent reason, according to charging documents.
They were arraigned and charged with theft by unlawful taking, access device fraud, criminal conspiracy and receiving stolen property. They each posted $25,000 unsecured bail and were released Tuesday. The investigators believe that much more than that has been stolen, but much of it was in cash and will be hard to trace.
According to the Daily Record, the Lewisberry Borough Council asked the nearby Fairview Fire Department in September to provide primary fire protection in the borough. They moved in to the building that housed the former Lewisberry Community Fire Company in November are using the same volunteer system, involving volunteers from the old fire department.
WHTM-TV filed this video report:
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Firegeezer points out that responsible fire departments carry performance bonds, a relatively cheap form of insurance against internal thievery and embezzlement. Why wasn't that done here?
Diane Shiller, writing in the October 29 Houston Chronicle, posted this article:
An international group of online hackers is warning a Mexican drug cartel to release one of its members, kidnapped from a street protest, or it will publish the identities and addresses of the syndicate's associates, from corrupt police to taxi drivers, as well as reveal the syndicates' businesses. …
"It won't be difficult; we all know who they are and where they are located," says the man, who underlines the group's international ties by speaking Spanish with the accent of a Spaniard while using Mexican slang.
He also implies that the group will expose mainstream journalists who are somehow in cahoots with the Zetas by writing negative articles about the military, the country's biggest fist in the drug war.
"We demand his release," says the Anonymous spokesman, who is wearing a mask like the one worn by the shadowy revolutionary character in the movie V for Vendetta, which came out in 2006. "If anything happens to him, you sons of (expletive) will always remember this upcoming November 5."
Just as WikiLeaks raised havoc with international politics, Anonymous has the capability of disrupting the operations of the Los Zetas Cartel and their partners.
Asymmetrical Warfare
Definition: "warfare in which opposing groups or nations have unequal military resources, and the weaker opponent uses unconventional weapons and tactics, as terrorism, to exploit the vulnerabilities of the enemy."
In this situation we have the second largest and most violent Mexican drug cartel being threatened by a decentralized online community of information technologists who are growing into a significant international force.
Anna Heim, writing in TNW Latin America, looks at the online actions taken against alleged Los Zetas supporters that appear to match the approach taken by Anonymous against earlier targets.
After the publicity of a NYPD commander pepper-spraying an Occupy Wall Street protestor, Anonymous made a similar threat last month:
Hello NYPD, We are Anonymous.
Around the internet, we have seen countless videos of your blatant disregard for first amendment rights. Whether it be by tasering, macing, kettling, or otherwise physically harming those involved in the occupy wall street protests.
We will not stand idly by and let these misdeeds go unpunished. We are hereby calling for an immediate apology and resignation of NYPD commissioner Raymond Kelley and the supervising officers involved. We already know who they are, their information is a matter of public record.
And to those police officers that are "just following orders:" We invite you to join us and stand with our cause in solidarity. An enemy of our enemy is our friend. Join us.
If our demands are not met by october sixth, we will unleash hell on your phones, your servers, and anything else we can find.
We are anonymous. We do not forgive. We do not forget. You have nine days.
They released personal information on the officer and disrupted some of the information technology assets of NYPD. They may have organized a denial of service (DoS) attack on the Oakland police department.
The implication is that public safety organization information (organization and personal) and digital technology are vunerable to hackers.
THE PRIMARY CULPRIT IN ONE OF Toronto, Ontario's most famous arsons was finally sentenced late last month to serve 12 years in prison for manslaughter and conspiracy to commit arson. The building that burned is regarded as the largest single-building fire in Toronto's history and made additional headlines several days later when the body of the man who set the fire was found in the basement of the fully-burned out store.
John Magno and his two brothers Frank and Carlo, owned the large hardware store in the Woodbine area of the city that was a neighborhood landmark. The business was started and built into a successful operation by their father. But they wanted to expand by moving to another location and then using the old property to build condominium apartments. After getting a quote for the cost of demolishing the original building which was still open for business and fully stocked, they decided to take another route. They contracted with two criminals, Sam Paskalis and Tony Jarcevic, to torch the business on Christmas Eve, 2001.
Paskalis and Jarcevic arrived with two other men shortly before midnight in two vans and loaded them up with some selected goods for themselves and one of the vans then drove away. The others went to the basement and then poured gasoline around the stock before trying to light it off, thinking that the gasoline would simply burn hot and set the entire store ablaze. Instead, the vapors ignited and a thunderous explosion blew the building apart and rousted the entire neighborhood.
Toronto Sun
The Toronto Fire Department responded with six full alarms and mounted a valiant and successful attempt to contain the fire to the Woodbine Building Supply store. The responding units found a badly-burned Paskalis wandering the neighborhood, but nobody else was around. Before the ambulance reached the hospital, Paskalis slipped into a coma and didn't come out of it for several months. It was just before that when Magno attempted to cash in on a fire insurance policy claim for $3.5 million that had just been bumped up a couple of months before the fire.
It was two weeks after the fire when the investigators finally worked their way down into the basement searching for the cause when they discovered the charred corpse of Jarcevic. They were able to make a case against Paskalis after he regained consciousness and convicted him on arson charges while preparing to file a 2nd-degree murder count later. After spending a year in jail while suffering unbearable pain from his injuries, Paskalis made a plea deal with the prosecuter to have his charges reduced in exchange for his confession and full story of who did what.
Sam Paskalis (Toronto Star)
After years of court procedings and motions, the Magno brothers were finally brought to trial with Frank and Carlo tried and convicted first. John, who was the ringleader and planner, was convicted in 2008 but not sentenced until last month.
John Magno arrives at court for
his sentencing last month. (National Post)
The National Post has a complete and detailed report on this complicated case HERE.
The Vancouver Sun reported last month on the sentencing and included some other updates HERE.
Hat tip to Mark Donovan for assistance.
Ten years after the fire, the only thing remaining from the family fortune
that Dad built is this hole in the ground that remains on Danforth Avenue.
(Google Street View)
MIAMI, FLORIDA, ASSISTANT FIRE CHIEF VELDORA ARTHUR was convicted Friday on three counts of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud. She now faces up to 20 years imprisonment on each charge.
Arthur's arrest in February of this year was reported in Firegeezer HERE when we told:
MIAMI, FLORIDA’s HIGHEST-RANKING FEMALE FIREFIGHTER was charged by a Federal grand jury, along with three others, for participating in an $11 million mortgage-fraud scheme in 2006.
Veldora Arthur, 45, is an Assistant Chief in the department and earns $184,000 a year. The incitment charges that she and the others allowed their names to be used as "straw man" purchasers of six luxury condominium units. The plot also permitted their credit histories to be used in securing the loans and in exchange they were paid an undisclosed sum of money.
Arthur, who was also Miami's first black female firefighter, was later found to have profited by $317,000 in the scheme. The U. S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida issued the following press release on Friday September 30:
Wifredo A. Ferrer, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and John V. Gillies, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Miami Field Office, announced that a federal jury found defendants Neil Fagan, Pamela Johnson, and Veldora Arthur guilty of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud, and all substantive mail-fraud counts set forth in the February 3, 2011 superseding indictment. The indictment included charges of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud and substantive mail fraud. The conspiracy and mail fraud counts carry a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment. All defendants were remanded into the custody of the United States Bureau of Prisons following their convictions.
Fagan and Johnson were charged in Counts 1 through 5 of the indictment and were convicted on all counts. According to the evidence, Fagan recruited the straw buyers who bought the properties listed in the indictment and received approximately $1,300,000 in mortgage fraud proceeds. Johnson served as the settlement agent who handled the real estate closings and diverted fraud proceeds to herself and family members. Arthur, charged and convicted of Counts 1, 3, and 5, was an Executive Assistant to the Fire Chief in the City of Miami Fire Department who served as a straw buyer. Arthur received approximately $317,000 in fraud proceeds in less than a month.
The properties in the case were located at 3370 NE 190 Street in Aventura, Florida, which is known as the Hidden Bay Condominium Complex. During the course of the conspiracy approximately $11,000,000 in fraudulent loans were issued, resulting in a loss to lenders of approximately $7,000,000.
Sentencing for Johnson and Fagan has been scheduled for December 15, 2011at 8:30am. Sentencing for Arthur has been scheduled for December 16, 2011 at 8:30 am.
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FIVE FORMER FIREFIGHTERS IN HAMPDEN COUNTY, Massachusetts, have pleaded guilty to a series of arsons last summer and are being sentenced for their crimes. Back on September 3, Firegeezer reported HERE that:
FIVE PAID-ON-CALL FIREFIGHTERS IN HAMPDEN COUNTY, Massachusetts, were arrested and arraigned on arson charges. The five young men ages 18 through 20 are accused of torching three vacant houses in rural areas, one on June 15, another on June 22, and the other on July 13. All of them are associated with either the Brimfield or Holland fire departments.
Patrick Elliot, 19, of Charlton; Donald Moores ,20, of Brimfield, Jordan Frank, 18, of Brimfield
and Brian Findlay, 18, of Ashford, Conn., left to right, appeared in Palmer District Court last
September for their arraignment on arson charges. Not pictured, Dylan Lajeunesse, 18, of Holland.
(The Republican photo)
Since then, they have all pleaded guilty and this past Friday the two labeled as the ringleaders of the crimes, Patrick Elliot and Brian Findlay were each sentenced to three years in prison plus five years probation along with restitution.
WSHM-TV Ch. 3 had its camera in the courtroom for the sentencing Friday:
Dylan LaJeunesse and Donald Moores have already been sentenced to three years probation and restitution. The fifth of the group Jordan Frank will be sentenced in late November.
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