Fire Law Blog Fire Service and Public Safety Legal Issues Blog by Curt Varone
If you have been following this blog for very long, you know there have been a large number of theft cases in the volunteer service where a high ranking official (treasurer, president or fire chief) steals large sums of money from the organization. None of these cases (and there are over 60 of them since 2008) are as strange and tragic as the one involving Jeffrey Lee Shifflett, the former fire chief of the Hardy Volunteer Fire Co., in Bedford County, Virginia.
On July 7, 2009, Shifflett, his wife Deborah, and his adult son Cory were charged with embezzling close to $250,000 from the Fire Company. On July 8, 2009, Shifflett committed suicide.
The criminal charges proceeded against Mrs. Shifflett and Cory Shifflett. Another chapter in the ugly affair came to a close last week as Mrs. Shifflett entered a guilty plea in Bedford County Circuit Court.
