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Excerpts from the ChicagoTribune.com:

The Oak Forest fire and police commission moved to fire David Griffin following a Feb. 5 hearing where Oak Forest officials presented information they had gathered against him.

Griffin, who served as Oak Forest’s fire chief for almost two years before resigning and requesting a reassignment to lieutenant in early 2016, is accused of misappropriating city funds to pay for repairs to his wife’s vehicle. The alleged thefts, which totaled $3,623, happened in October 2014, June 2015, and October 2015, while Griffin was fire chief.

He was arrested Dec. 28 and charged with theft, forgery and official misconduct — all felonies — following a nearly two-month investigation by the Oak Forest Police Department.

Griffin’s alleged misuse of city funds came to light during budget discussions last November when Fire Chief Patrick Duffy spotted what appeared to be a fraudulent purchase order from 2015 while reviewing the maintenance history of the department’s vehicle fleet. During an investigation, police found two additional invoices totaling more than $2,000 for work performed on a 1998 Pontiac Grand Prix registered to Griffin’s wife, from whom he is separated.

Griffin identified the vehicle as a red Impala once owned by the department in two of the purchase order request forms he submitted at the time, but police determined that the repairs aligned with work done on the Grand Prix, not the Impala. Under questioning, Griffin acknowledged that the transmission on his wife’s vehicle had been replaced, but initially told police that he paid for the repairs with cash. Later, he called the situation an accident and claimed he was not trying to defraud the city.

On the same day police arrested Griffin, they also questioned his wife about the repairs. She told police she had told her husband that her car wasn’t running properly and without any notice it was picked up and returned in working condition. She has not been charged with a crime.

The city has now seen three of its fire chiefs or deputy fire chiefs investigated for alleged financial improprieties in the past 11 years.

Former Fire Chief Lindsay Laycoax resigned in late 2007 after coming under investigation when an audit uncovered missing fire department equipment and questionable purchases. City officials decided not to pursue a case because he paid back the approximately $3,000 involved.

In December 2013, Oak Forest Deputy Fire Chief Charles Sopko and his wife were indicted on charges they embezzled more than $350,000 from the Palos Heights Fire Protection District, where she worked as a part-time bookkeeper. She pleaded guilty to the thefts in 2015 and received an eight-year prison sentence, but her husband, who claimed he was not aware of his wife’s scheme, was acquitted. 

Griffin was investigated in early 2016 about an invoice for his purchase of a pistol light and two gun holsters that the city red-flagged as suspicious because it did not appear to be fire department-related.

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