By Eric Herman
Contributing: Kristen Schorsch, Isaac Wolf and Jim Hook of the Daily Southtown
The Chicago Sun Times
Copyright 2007 Chicago Sun-Times, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
ORLAND PARK, Ill. — An Orland Park firefighter did private security work in the Middle East while claiming he was in the U.S. military and fraudulently collecting more than $193,000 from the village, prosecutors and sources said Wednesday.
Lawrence Masa, 42, faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted, said Assistant State’s Attorney Diane Ghaster. Judge Maura Slattery Boyle set bond at $100,000 for Masa, who faces charges of felony theft and official misconduct.
Prosecutors allege Masa submitted fraudulent documents to support his claim he was being deployed to Iraq.
“The defendant was not serving in the U.S. military,” Ghaster said. “He was working for private security firms while supposedly on military leave.”
Granted leaves 5 times
Masa has a military background. According to Ghaster, he enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1982 and “completed his obligation” with the Army Reserve in 1988. Masa joined the Orland Park Fire Protection District in 1995, winning promotion to lieutenant in 2004, she said.
Starting in March 2003, Masa applied for military leave from the fire department, submitting bogus documents to show he would be deployed, Ghaster said. He applied for leave a total of five times and “was granted military leave on all five occasions,” she said.
The military leaves between March 2003 and December 2006 amounted to 27 months off, Ghaster said. During that time, Masa continued to draw full salary and benefits from the fire department — more than $193,000 in all.
‘No way related’ to military
But Masa was really earning top dollar working for private security firms during those periods, Ghaster said. He worked for two firms and earned a total of $200,000.
Ghaster would not comment on the locations of Masa’s work. But a source familiar with the investigation said Masa claims he was doing security work “all over the Middle East and in Europe.”
The U.S. government has used private security firms in the Iraq war, turning to them for personal security for some U.S. officials, for example.
But Orland Park police Cmdr. Chuck Doll said Masa’s contracting work for the two U.S.-based firms was “in no way related” to the military.
Vet: let him serve for real
Masa lives in Morris and is married with two children, ages 11 and 12, assistant public defender Lee Carson said. He graduated from Illinois State University. He also works as a part-time firefighter in Westmont, where he took an unpaid military leave at about the same time he told Orland officials he’d been activated.
“He’s the sole provider for his family as well as his mother, who is in a home,” Carson said.
Neighbors of Masa’s said Wednesday they believe he was serving overseas as he claimed.
“We know that he was out there somewhere fighting or doing what needed to be done,” said Harry Davy.
When he returned to the neighborhood, Masa brought Davy and his wife a souvenir plate from Pakistan and told the couple he met up with his stepson in Afghanistan, where the young man was also serving in the military, they said.
Orland fire officials discovered Masa’s alleged wrongdoing last month. They met with the village’s police department on Dec. 22 after receiving a tip his documentation might have been forged. Orland Park Police Chief Tim McCarthy then contacted the Cook County state’s attorney’s office.
Police showed Masa’s military papers to the U.S. Army, which confirmed the documents had been falsified. On Tuesday, Orland Park police arrested Masa at the Orland Park Fire Protection District headquarters.
Frank Mulcahy, a Vietnam-era Marine veteran from Tinley Park, said Masa deserves to be punished.
“That would certainly teach him a lesson,” said Mulcahy, of Tinley Park. “Then, when he gets out of prison, let him go to Iraq and fight along the real soldiers in the war on terror.”