Former Inter-Canyon Fire chief allegedly embezzled $643,000

Former Inter-Canyon fire chief suspected of stealing $643,000 from district
By Kieran Nicholson, The Denver Post
10/17/2013

A former volunteer fire chief is suspected of stealing $643,000 from the department he headed.

David Roy MacBean, 41, has been indicted by a Jefferson County grand jury, according to the district attorney's office.

MacBean, a former chief of the Inter-Canyon Fire Protection District, faces three counts of theft of $20,000 or more, and three counts of embezzlement of public property.

He's accused of making unauthorized purchases for personal gain on the district's credit card and bank accounts from January 2010 until March 2013 . In March 2013, members of the Inter-Canyon Fire Protection District board contacted the DA's office regarding possible misuse of district funds and an investigation ensued.

Speaking from an organizational point of view, local news threads better fit in the Campfire based on the description of that forum, as opposed to the political topics of the Courthouse. However, the Courthouse is more active so threads in here will automatically get more views. From a bigger picture standpoint, I'd prefer to not get in a rut of throwing everything in here just to "get more views" - that's how forums start to stagnate. Not to mention that the Courthouse is also a big turnoff for many visitors, so I'd personally love to see more local news being put in the Campfire where people are more likely to look for local news (based on the description of the forum).

The View Active Topics button or View New Posts button are great ways to keep up on what's happening on the whole site (as there are a lot of events and other things posted) and eliminate the issue of extra clicks to check up on the goings-on in other forums.

Back on topic, I too would love to see what WindPeak has to say about this, but I'm sure it wouldn't change their mind about how they feel about ECFPD - they obviously have their mind made up and no amount of facts presented, even from an article in the Flume in which the author never once said their own opinion of "Vote Yes" or "Vote No", just presented the issue and information, is going to make them budge. WindPeak made many comments that were obviously not true, and even when presented with video proof otherwise, still held to their own misinformed opinions. Despite the fact that s/he has compared ECFPD and ICFPD, they did so on the very narrow issue of a department in turmoil not asking for tax increases. ICFPD is, and has been, in turmoil but isn't asking for a tax. ECFPD is not in turmoil and is asking for a tax increase, but nothing anyone says will convince him/her that ECFPD is not in turmoil. Denial is a powerful thing.

Inter-Canyon is a fine department with many fine volunteers. As Michael Davis said, I hope the alleged actions of one person does not cause people to lose faith in the entire department - their board did turn him into the DA once they realized there was something amiss. I hope this issue is resolved quickly for them and they are able to recover. I believe the next court date is December so we'll check back then for an update.