CRANDALL, Texas — A trial date has been set in the case against the former treasurer and chaplain of the Crandall Fire Department who is alleged to have stolen more than $100,000 from the department.
CRANDALL, Texas — A trial date has been set in the case against the former treasurer and chaplain of the Crandall Fire Department who is alleged to have stolen more than $100,000 from the department.
65-year-old Denny Mackey was originally arrested in the fall of 2013 after allegedly using his role as the department’s secretary and treasurer to siphon funds from department loans that were collateralized by fire apparatus. Some of that apparatus was eventually sold off to satisfy the fraudulent loans.
Now, more than five years after his arrest, Mackey is scheduled to appear for a jury trial before Kaufman County's 422nd District Court Judge B. Michael Chitty on October 15, 2018, barring any additional delays or reschedules in the case. Jury announcement is expected to begin October 11.
On September 11, 2017, a Kaufman County grand jury indicted Mackey on one count of theft, greater than or equal to $100,00 and less than $200,000, a second-degree felony.
According to the indictment sheet, Mackey, “...did then and there, unlawfully appropriate, by acquiring or otherwise exercising control over, property, to wit: United States of America Currency, of the value of $100,000 or more but less than $200,000, from the Crandall Volunteer Fire Department, the owner thereof, without the effective consent of the owner, namely, by deception, and with intent to deprive the owner of the property.”
A probable cause affidavit and arrest warrant alleges Mackey siphoned money from those loans by making personal checks payable to his personal business, paying himself inflated administration fees, using a CVFD debit card for personal purchases, and making ATM cash withdrawals.
Prosecutors have subpoenaed records from American National Bank, Home Bank, and Kansas State Bank — all of which carried loans for the department for staffing, equipment and apparatus, and departmental repairs.
Crandall Fire Department Chief Allen Cousins, in 2014, said the department paid off more than $150,000 in alleged fraudulent loans in part by selling fire department apparatus.
Mackey also served as the department’s chaplain and as pastor of the Cottonwood Baptist Church at the time of the alleged thefts.