Ex-NJ fire chief accused of stealing grant money

By Lucas K. Murray
The Gloucester County Times

CLAYTON, N.J. — The former chief of the Clayton Fire Department was arrested Friday after investigators concluded that he had stolen thousands of dollars in federal grant money earmarked for the department.

Harry J. Simpson Jr., 44, of the 100 block of Cedar Avenue in the borough, turned himself in to the Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office Friday afternoon and was served with criminal complaints charging him with third-degree theft and second-degree official misconduct.

Simpson is charged with taking $11,900 from the department between January and February 2006. At the time, Simpson was its elected chief. His two-year term ended in 2007.

The prosecutor's office said the funds had been obtained by the department through a Federal Emergency Management Agency grant awarded in 2004. When Clayton applied for a second FEMA grant in 2008, it was discovered that the first one had not been closed out and a follow-up audit was performed.

Irregularities were discovered, and a subsequent investigation was conducted.

Last month, it was announced that the fire department would receive more than $91,000 through a Department of Homeland Security grant brokered by New Jersey's two Democratic U.S. Senators, Robert Menendez and Frank Lautenberg.

Clayton was the only department in Gloucester County to receive the grant, which was awarded to fire departments and EMS organizations unaffiliated with a hospital.

The department's current chief could not be reached for comment late Friday.

Coincidentally, the theft is alleged to have occurred around the time that the borough's then-police chief was convicted of defrauding the town and the state Mothers Against Drunk Driving organization of more than $180,000.

At trial, prosecutors said that Frank Winters, who served as Clayton's police chief for 23 years prior to his arrest, used his home-based business to bill the borough and MADD for "promotional items" from June 2002 to April 2007. The 63-year-old former chief is serving seven years in state prison after pleading guilty to a charge of official misconduct.

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