Criminal Law

A hidden camera discovered in a bathroom inside a Miami-Dade Fire Rescue station bathroom last weekend has prompted a criminal investigation by the Miami-Dade Police Department and an internal investigation by MDFR. The incident reportedly occurred at Station 69 in located in Doral.

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Criminal charges against a Connecticut firefighter for violating an emergency scene photo-taking law, have been dismissed. Steven Frischling, the public information officer for the Chesterfield Fire Company, was charged in 2021 with violating Joshua’s Law.

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A Buffalo firefighter who was seriously injured in an altercation with another Buffalo firefighter following a St. Patrick’s Day parade last year, has filed suit alleging negligence, recklessness and battery. Derek Rose filed suit in Erie County Supreme Court, naming Richard Manley as the sole defendant.

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A volunteer firefighter in Georgia has been charged with setting his own home on fire to collect on the insurance. Todd Anthony was arrested by the Greene County Sheriff's Office on March 3, 2023, almost a year after the March 16, 2022 fire.

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A Colorado Springs firefighter charged with careless driving resulting in death, pled guilty to the misdemeanor charge. Wesley Cosgrove was driving a brush unit to a fire in a park on October 16, 2022. While proceeding down a dirt path he drove over what appeared to be debris. A 76-year-old homeless woman, Margaret Miller, was under the debris.

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A former Georgia fire chief has been charged with using a departmental credit card to purchase approximately $200 of gasoline for a personal vehicle. Peach County’s former chief Jeff Doles is accused of inappropriately using the credit card six times over a two-year period.

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The former treasurer of a North Carolina volunteer fire department has been charged with stealing over $48,000 from the department. Kimberly Hutchens Reeves is facing felony larceny charges for her alleged theft from the Pearce’s Mill Fire Department.

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In this episode of Fire Law Roundup for February 27, 2023, Brad and Curt discuss a California decision holding that  fire departments are not crime victims when an arson occurs, and thus a court cannot order the arsonist to pay ...

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The California Court of Appeals has ruled that a criminal convicted of setting a wildland fire cannot be required to pay restitution to responding fire departments as part of his sentence, because the fire departments are not the victims of the crime. The case involved Jorge Flores, who was convicted last year of setting a wildland fire in Ventura County in 2021.

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A Georgia fire chief has been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation into the hiring of a firefighter who was facing felony theft charges in Alabama. Fire Chief Roderick Jolivette is on leave from the Douglas County Fire/EMS as the county looks into the hiring of Daymetrie Williams.

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The driver of a Kansas City pumper that killed three people in 2021, has pled guilty today to three counts of involuntary manslaughter. Dominic Biscari was driving Pumper 19, when it ran a red light, collided with an SUV, struck several parked cars, and came to rest in a building.

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In this episode of Fire Law Roundup for February 13, 2023, Brad and Curt discuss a jury verdict holding the Perth Amboy Fire Department (NJ) liable for a series of sexual assaults perpetrated thirty years ago by a firefighter on ...

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A New Jersey jury has found the City of Perth Amboy and the Perth Amboy Fire Department liable for a series of sexual assaults perpetrated thirty years ago by a firefighter on a 12-year-old boy. The firefighter, Hugo Fleites, was sentenced to ten years in prison after pleading guilty to aggravated sexual assault in 2019.

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The conviction of a Kentucky fire lieutenant on charges that he had child pornography on his fire department laptop, has been upheld by the US Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. Robert Chris England, a lieutenant with the Middlesboro Fire Department, was convicted of four child porn related counts.

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