By Stephen Betts
Bangor Daily News
SOUTH THOMASTON, Maine — The Maine Attorney General’s Office wants to intervene in a lawsuit filed by the town against two men, including South Thomaston’s former fire chief, over the disappearance of nearly $15,000 from a defunct firemen association’s bank accounts.
Attorney General Janet Mills filed the motion to intervene on Wednesday in Knox County Unified Court in the lawsuit against former chief Wayne Brown and former firefighter Colin Grierson.
The motion filed by the state asks the court to order Brown and Grierson to return $14,783 along with interest earned since July 2010, when the town and state claim Brown withdrew the money from the South Thomaston Firemen’s Association’s bank accounts.
Brown served on the town’s volunteer fire department for 42 years and was its chief for 16 years until resigning in April 2006. He also was a member of the firemen’s association until it disbanded.
The money in question had been in bank accounts controlled by the firemen’s association, according to the town’s lawsuit. The association members voted in May 2007 to dissolve and have any money the association had go to the town for the purchase of a firetruck, the suit states.
Town officials indicate that they made numerous unsuccessful attempts to have the money returned, and eventually bought a firetruck in 2014 without those funds.
Brown previously told the BDN that he does not recall if he withdrew the money from the firemen’s association accounts. Grierson, who also was a member of the now defunct association, told the BDN last year that he does not know what happened to the money.
Local firefighters raised funds for the association in a variety of ways, such as by doing controlled burns of fields and catering meals for local events. The money was used for coffee and doughnuts for firefighters when they fought fires, but the overwhelming bulk was set aside to buy fire equipment.
In July 2015, the attorney general’s office told the town it would not conduct a criminal investigation into the disappearance of the money.
In the AG’s motion filed Wednesday, however, the state maintains that one of its responsibilities is to ensure that money given to charities is properly used and that the firemen’s association was a charitable organization. The people who operate the charities owe a fiduciary responsibility of good faith and loyalty to the organization and that was not done in this case, according to the attorney general’s filing.
When reached Thursday, Walter McKee, the defense attorney for both Brown and Grierson, said the intervention changes nothing. His clients deny any wrongdoing. McKee maintains that the money from the firemen’s association was supposed to go toward the purchase of a Class A pumper and that was not what the town bought. Therefore, “the town hasn’t done what it was supposed to do in order to receive the monies.”
When asked if that meant his clients have the money, McKee replied, “The money is being held in a separate account.”
When asked what the town should do to get the money, the attorney said, “Actually purchasing a Class A pump truck.”
The court has yet to agree to give the state intervenor status. No trial date for the civil case has been scheduled.
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