Former fire chief receives sentence

BROWNSTOWN - The former Carr Township fire chief convicted of two counts of theft involving more than $38,000 stolen from the department recently received a three-year prison term in Jackson Circuit Court.

Todd Russell Snodgrass, 41, of Brownstown also was ordered by Jackson Circuit Judge Bill Vance to repay the fire department $28,709.35 at not less than $250 per month. If those repayments are not made, Vance ordered that a civil judgment should be entered against Snodgrass.

Snodgrass is serving his sentence at the Jackson County Jail in Brownstown.

Vance also suspended one year of Snodgrass' prison term on one count of theft but placed him on supervised probation for 2-½ years. On the second count of theft, Vance ordered Snodgrass to serve a 1-½ year prison term but suspended that term, ordering Snodgrass to spend three years on supervised probation. The sentences from each count are to be served consecutively.

In early September 2008, Snodgrass and special prosecutor Michael P. DeArmitt reached a plea agreement that called for Snodgrass to plead guilty to two counts of theft and repay $27,709.33. Two other theft charges were dropped.

The agreement called for Snodgrass' sentence not to exceed six months. Sentencing was set aside for six months through the agreement to allow Snodgrass' payment of restitution to be monitored.

The agreement also allowed the court to reduce Snodgrass' conviction on the two counts of theft from Class D felonies to Class A misdemeanors if he complied with all terms of his judgment, probation and sentence and made full restitution.

During a March 9 sentencing hearing, Vance retained jurisdiction to reduce those charges if Snodgrass makes full restitution to the department before his probationary period.

On Jan. 23, 2008, Snodgrass turned himself in to Jackson County Jail, where he once worked as a jailer, on a Jackson Circuit Court warrant charging four counts of theft.

A state audit showed Snodgrass was responsible for misappropriated, diverted or missing funds from the fire department and the Carr Township Fire Territory from Jan. 1, 2001, to Dec. 31, 2005. Snodgrass oversaw financial accounts for both the fire department and territory, which was established between the town of Medora and Carr Township.

Last July, the Indiana attorney general's office filed a lawsuit alleging Snodgrass failed to properly account for, expend and/or deposit funds totaling $38,709, but the fire department recovered $10,000 through its employee dishonesty insurance coverage, leaving Snodgrass liable for the remainder. An agreed judgment was approved in October in Jackson Superior Court I that any repayments Snodgrass would serve as credit against the state action.

According to a probable cause affidavit filed by Detective Richard T. Roseberry with the Indiana State Police post at Seymour, Snodgrass was accused of stealing the funds during the time he served as chief from 2003 to 2005.

During that period, Snodgrass also was in charge of record keeping, bookkeeping and bill payment for the department. An audit by the Indiana State Board of Accounts conducted for the years Snodgrass was chief showed the department lost $38,709.35.

One of the improper transactions found during the state audit shows that in June 2004 Snodgrass failed to deposit $190.31 from a $41,690.31 check issued to the Carr Township Fire Department by the Carr Township trustee. On April 14, 2005, the audit showed that Snodgrass wrote a $241.88 check from the Carr Fire Protection Territory to a local discount store for the purchase of fishing lures and Guns N Roses music, and on July 21, 2005, he wrote a $506.68 check from the department to a car dealership in Seymour for payment of repairs performed on his personal vehicle.

A special prosecutor was appointed in the case to remove any appearance of a conflict of interest, Jackson County Prosecutor Rick Poynter has said. That's because one of the checks Snodgrass wrote was for services provided by Poynter's father.