Criminal Law

A Texas fire chief who was planning to retire at the end of the year has been arrested by the FBI and charged with stealing pension funds. Denton County Emergency Services District No. 1 Fire Chief Mac Hohenberger was arrested at Dallas Fort Worth Airport as he returned from Las Vegas.

Read More »

A Colorado Springs firefighter has been charged with careless driving following the death of a woman last month. Firefighter Wesley Cosgrove was driving a brush unit when he ran over a woman who was laying on the ground in Dorchester Park.

Read More »

In this episode of Fire Law Roundup for November 14, 2022, Brad and Curt discuss the impact of the Massachusetts Human Resource Division to cancel all upcoming fire promotional examinations; a wildland firefighter who drove a US Forest Service engine ...

Read More »

A wildland firefighter with the US Forest Service has been arrested as part of sexual predator sting operation in central California. Mark McGill Jr. was arrested when he arrived in a Forest Service engine to what he thought was a rendezvous with a teenage girl in Fresno County.

Read More »

In this episode of Fire Law Roundup for November 7, 2022, Brad and Curt discuss a $32 Million award against a Kansas City firefighter personally for causing a crash that killed three people last December, discipline for two Denver firefighter ...

Read More »

A professional standards investigation by the Rochester Police Department has recommended that a police officer who handcuffed an EMT last July face disciplinary charges. Investigator Charles LoTiempo will remain on suspended-with-pay status while the disciplinary process plays out.

Read More »

A Virginia Beach firefighter is facing federal child porn charges following an investigation that connected his IP to a firehouse. Douglas France is accused of possession and distribution of child pornography.

Read More »

A firefighter who served 15 years with Cal Fire before retiring in 2014 and had recently been rehired as a captain, has been sentenced to one-year and a day in prison for defrauding the federal government while administering a SAFER grant. Samuel Thomas Lanier, 40, pled guilty in 2019 to seven counts of major fraud.

Read More »

A Georgia firefighter who was terminated in 2017 following an off-duty vehicle accident, has lost his suit to regain his job. Robert Bailey was fired from the Henry County Fire Department following an investigation into an accident that occurred on June 14, 2017.

Read More »

A Kentucky fire chief has been indicted for stealing from the fire department. David G. Douglas Jr., the fire chief for Barlow Rural Fire Department, was indicted by a Ballard County grand Jury on a single count of theft by unlawful taking greater than $10,000.

Read More »

A former West Virginia firefighter who forcibly raped a 16-year-old female in a firehouse in January 2021, has been sentenced to fourteen years in prison. Christopher Lee Osborne, 26, pled guilty earlier this year on federal civil rights violation charges.

Read More »

A Massachusetts firefighter has been charged with using a hidden camera to secretly record a female colleague in the firehouse. Nicholas Tillman is facing two charges, unlawful interception of a wire or oral communication (wiretap) and secret sexual surveillance.

Read More »

A dispatcher for Greene County, PA is facing manslaughter charges for not promptly dispatching EMS to a request for medical aid in 2020. Leon Price faces one count of involuntary manslaughter, reckless endangerment, official oppression and obstruction in the death of Diania Kronk.

Read More »

In this episode of Fire Law Roundup for June 6, 2022, Paul Doughty joins Curt for a discussion of a sexual-harassment-suicide case out of Illinois; a firefighter guilty plea in a drug case out of Massachusetts; the filing of a race-discrimination suit out of California; and a ruling in favor of a fire department in a race discrimination suit out of Virginia.

Read More »