McDonough Co. (ECWd) –
According to court records in McDonough County, the now former Assistant Fire Chief, Michael Phelps, committed arson:
“MICHAELS. PHELPS on or about the 25th day of June, in the year of our Lord two thousand four, at and within the said County of McDonough in the State of Illinois, aforesaid, by means of fire, knowingly damaged a building of Steve Sowers located at4255 N. 1250th Road, Colchester, McDonough County, Illinois without Steve Sowers consent, and did then and there, thereby, committed the offense of ARSON in violation of Chapter 720, Section 5/20- 1 (a) of the Illinois Compiled Statutes”
Phelps pleaded guilty in a negotiated plea deal to a charge of Criminal Damage to Property and was sentenced to 30 days in the county jail.
We have one simple question: Who in their right mind allows a person to become a firefighter, let alone an Assistant Chief with this kind of criminal history?
We first reported on this Fire Protection District in this article.
We understand there has been a payment made by someone in order to account for the missing funds from the Memorial Fund. To date, no credit card records have been provided, but over $10,000 was paid to two different credit cards even though the Fire District does not possess those accounts.
The wife of the former Chief has now taken to Facebook and exposed even more questionable activity by admitting personnel routinely used FPD property for personal use, which is a violation of Article VIII, Section I of our State Constitution. While her efforts appeared to be a way of minimizing the actions of her husband by alleging everyone was doing similar things, she actually is exposing conduct that clearly violates our laws.
The recent meeting was videotaped by a local citizen and can be viewed at the links below.
