Fire chief arrested

[vwwh1 0]

THE JOURNAL NEWS

(Original publication: June 7, 2005)

TARRYTOWN — A former chief of the village's Volunteer Fire Department has been accused of using a village credit card to buy himself a laptop, tools and other assorted items the day after his one-year term as chief expired in April, police said.

Joseph McCarthy, 43, of 91 Tappan Landing Road was arrested at the Main Street firehouse yesterday morning on a charge of third-degree grand larceny, a felony. Police Chief Scott W. Brown said a member of the Fire Department alerted police several weeks ago that equipment had been purchased with village funds that could not be accounted for, and the investigation led to McCarthy.

McCarthy went to a Sam's Club in Elmsford on April 9 and bought more than $3,000 worth of computer equipment, office supplies, a tool cabinet and an awning, police said. McCarthy was released without bail and is due back in Tarrytown Village Court for arraignment tomorrow.

McCarthy, an 18-year veteran of the fire department, was assistant chief in 2002 and 2003 and chief in 2004. He is the brother of Clarice Pollack, a village trustee. He did not return a message left on an answering machine at his home yesterday.

Brown said the allegations have stunned the tight-knit community of volunteers and first-responders in Tarrytown, a village of about 12,000 residents, with some 90 volunteer firefighters who provide 24-hour fire protection.

"Joe is a friend and I'm very sorry to see this happen," Brown said. "He was very cooperative with the investigation and, during his length of service, he did an excellent job."

Brown added that there was no indication that McCarthy, a self-employed handyman, had misused village funds in the past.

Village Administrator Stephen McCabe said that while he was concerned about the incident, he believed the impact on the morale of the department would be temporary.

"Our volunteers are very highly respected and have a good reputation in this community," McCabe said. "We have every confidence that the department members will soldier on and move past this."

Last night the village Board of Trustees had a closed-door meeting to discuss the arrest and agreed to undertake a review of the management structure of the Fire Department to establish whether stricter financial controls were warranted, McCabe said.

[JBE 328]

Knucklehead...

[RWC130 594]

DOAH!! [-X

[afd65 4]

this does not seem to be tarrytown's year

[mikelouf2 0]

I hope they put his a** in jail for a long time [-X [-X #-o #-o :---)

[WAS967 97]

For a long time? Please. He'll plead first time offender and will probably be put on probation and community service. I'd be very surprised if he did anything more than time served. I just hope they make him either return the stuff or pay back the money with interest.

[gpdexplorer 46]

According to News 12 (very credible source :---) ) he gave the items to the police department.

[CFD320 35]

3K thats nothing! #-o

[Guest]

Just think about the Mt Kisco PEO who stole $30,000 in quarters?

[x242Steve 1]

Just think about the Mt Kisco PEO who stole $30,000 in quarters?

Thats 120,000 quarters!

or 24,000 20oz bottles of Coke

or 60,000 hours of parking at New Roc City garage

[emt301 4]

Hopefully, if he's guilty he pleads such, and spares his family and brothers in the FD the pain of a trial and its associated media coverage/bad publicity. He should also, obviously, be permanently removed from the FD.

[calhobs 110]

Just keep in mind all there is three sides to every story, This chief that chief and the truth

[Guest squad]

Way to support a brother FF guys. You have

convicted the guy before we know all the facts.

Your more concerned about yourselves than a

brother who is in trouble.

You guys are weak!

[JBE 328]

OK wait one second here. How can we possibly be weak?? The guy was accused of using a public credit card to buy personal items. Far as I am concerned, guilty or not, that was a dumb move. Were these purchases approved by the FD in Question?? Where were the items found?? Were they in the Firehouse or in his residence/place of employment???

Ever heard of being held to a higher standard?? Guilty or not, this sort of thing makes EVERY person in the Fire/EMS Service look bad. Public perception, yet again.

Imagine this, if you will. You're a volunteer department doing a fundraiser for equipment/apparatus. John Q. Public reads the Journal News and sees the story about this fellow and immediately assumes the worst.

John Q: They are a bunch of thieves, (among other descriptions that have been used when someone gets in trouble) they will get none of my hard earned money to squander, my taxes pay for enough of it.

Never mind 99.9% of the people in your Department are stand up, do the right thing type of people. One person gets locked up and out comes the VERY broad brush. The broad brush also comes out even if nobody gets into trouble. That's already been discussed here.

[Guest]

Lawyer: Ex-fire chief did nothing wrong

By LIZ SADLER AND JOSEPH AX

esadler@thejournalnews.com

THE JOURNAL NEWS

(Original publication: June 9, 2005)

TARRYTOWN — The lawyer for Joseph McCarthy, a former volunteer fire chief accused of using a village credit card to buy more than $3,000 worth of merchandise for himself, said his client purchased the equipment for the firehouse and did nothing wrong.

"Joe McCarthy, since 1979, has served as a firefighter. He's worked his way up the ranks," said Stephen R. Lewis, a White Plains lawyer who represents McCarthy. "He's dedicated his adult life to community service. ... He's a decent human being that is loved by his family and friends, and it's truly unfortunate that this charge has been brought."

McCarthy, an 18-year veteran of the department, was charged Monday with third-degree grand larceny, a felony. He appeared yesterday morning in Tarrytown Village Court, where Village Justice Kyle McGovern adjourned the case to July 20.

Police said McCarthy, 43, of 91 Tappan Landing Road, went to Sam's Club in Elmsford on April 9 and bought computer equipment, office supplies, a tool cabinet and an awning. Someone at the department alerted police several weeks ago that equipment had been purchased with village funds that could not be accounted for, and the investigation led to McCarthy.

But Lewis said McCarthy delivered most of the equipment to the firehouse shortly after he bought it. He turned over the remaining items to police May 12 in response to inquiries, Lewis said.

Lewis added that vouchers for the items were signed and approved by Village Treasurer James Hart. Hart, however, said he paid the vouchers to maintain the village's line of credit with Sam's Club, even though questions had been raised about the purchases.

James Lenox, the current fire chief, said he first was presented with the vouchers and refused to sign them because he did not know where the items were. He declined to comment further on the case.

Meanwhile, village officials said they already have begun to install stricter financial controls in the wake of the allegations and will study additional ways to prevent problems.

Village Administrator Stephen McCabe said the financial safeguards, particularly with regard to the fire department, were "a little loose" upon his arrival at Village Hall in May 2004, but he maintained that improvements have been made and the process will continue.

Hart said the credit-card policy already has been altered, and the village will use a bar-code system to ensure that equipment purchased with village funds is housed at the firehouse.

Financial precautions are even more important when talking about an all-volunteer department that does not employ any professional administrators, McCabe said.

"You just have to be conscious of the fact that it's a volunteer department," he said.

McCarthy was assistant chief in 2002 and 2003 and chief in 2004. He is the brother of Clarice Pollack, a village trustee.

[Remember585 815]

I'm not a smart man, but it sounds to me like someone was out to screw Joe. I hope the truth comes out and this whole issue gets put to bed. Remember, ALL OF US, we need to know facts before we jump the gun and make accusations. The press isn't always correct, nor are they fair when publishing stories. Many times come to mind when a story is one-sided. We shouldn't be so quick to jump down someone's throat.

I hope the truth comes out and Joe McCarthy did nothing wrong, and if he did, then justice is given accordingly.

[firemn23 8]

I am not making any comment on if Joe is guilty or not, but JBE brings up a good point most llikely the public will never find out the final outcome of this and the TFD will just be black eyed by this for a while to come. It is the same as the SHFD that had an incident a year ago, I personally never heard a thing about it since except they supposedly put the gas down the drain. I do think Joes thing could have been dealt with in a differnt way as to not allow the press to run with this story.

[JBE 328]

The press would have found out anyway. Arrested or made to make restitution. What bugs me about the stories is the constant mention of his sister, who is an innocent party in all of this.

It does seem like the media lately like to jump on the public service sector when they mess up, and then bury the story in the @$$ end of the paper by the want ads when nothing comes of it.

[WAS967 97]

I hope the truth comes out and Joe McCarthy did nothing wrong, and if he did, then justice is given accordingly.

WE all have our slip ups. Who knows other than him if he was doing it for whatever reason. To say they should throw him in jail for life is just stupid. (Another seperate posT)

[Guest cuffsnhoses]

I hope he get whatever he has coming to him, if he is guilty. I also hope that the TFD recovers from this embarrassing incident. Maybe this will be a lesson to the Tarrytown board or whomever is responsible for paying that credit card. This is almost like a blank check. Bad management on behave of the tarrytown board or TFD.