The story above is about the search warrants the FBI served in Prince George’s County on September 13, 2008. Government offices and the homes of some politically connected residents were searched. So far only one name from that story has officially surfaced in the most recent raids by the FBI on Friday and Monday. The Washington Post reports the FBI wants to seize a liquor store partially owned by former PGFD Lt. Colonel Karl Granzow Jr. Granzow or any of the others mentioned in the 2008 story have not been charged with any crimes in connection with these investigations.
Since the news broke of the arrest of Prince George’s County Executive Jack Johnson and his wife Leslie on Friday we have been linking to a story that STATter911.com first reported in September of 2008. The story covers an earlier FBI raid on Prince George’s County offices in connection with a probe of deals developers made with county officials. The office and home of Karl Granzow Jr. were among the places searched by agents on Saturday, September 13.
Former Lt. Col. Karl Granzow Jr. in a PGFD photo.
Now, after yesterday’s arrests of three Prince George’s County police officers and six others on extortion, cocaine and gun charges, along with the illegal sale of alcohol and cigarettes, Granzow’s name has again surfaced. From WashingtonPost.com Monday evening:
Among the properties that authorities have moved to confiscate, in addition to Tick Tock, are what appear to be several liquor stores in the county, including Shop Rite Liquors in Takoma Park. Public records indicate that Shop Rite is partly owned by Karl Granzow, a former deputy fire chief in Prince George’s.
Granzow’s home was searched in 2008 in the probe of development deals. At the time, Granzow declined to comment. As for the liquor store, Granzow’s attorney, Timothy Maloney, said Granzow has a 25 percent stake in the business but is not involved in its daily operation. He said he does not think investigators are interested in his client.
Federal law enforcement officials have told reporters the arrests of the Johnsons and the arrests of the police officers and others are all connected, but aren’t providing details.
Here is some of what STATter911.com and WUSA9.com reported on September 14, 2008 about the search warrant served at PGFD’s headquarters:
Numerous sources familiar with the actions on Saturday tell STATter 911 the search warrant served at fire department headquarters was specifically for the fourth floor office occupied by Col. Granzow. Granzow’s Bowie home was also entered by a team of agents.Granzow runs the department’s management services command, which includes fiscal affairs, fleet management, human resources, information technologies and occupational safety and health.
According to the sources, agents also gathered evidence from computers inside the Office of Information Technology in the same building at 9201 Basil Court in Largo. The office operates computer systems for county government.
Karl Granzow, reached by phone, referred all comments to the public information officer for the department. Chief Spokesman Mark Brady tells STATter 911 he is unable to comment on the developments.
Sources familiar with the search warrants tell STATter 911 the information being gathered by agents is connected to lobbying, campaign finance and building construction projects. STATter 911 has no information to indicate criminal charges have been filed against any individuals mentioned in this story. Grand jury subpoenas have also been issued in the investigation.
The Post reports, and other sources confirm, a large development near the Greenbelt Metro station is part of the investigation. The project is called Greenbelt Station and is located on the old A.H. Smith Jr. property, a sand and gravel operation. The land is just inside the Capital Beltway, east of the CSX railroad tracks and north of Greenbelt Road.
Sources say there had previously been concern within county government about Karl Granzow’s ownership of a small percentage of a firm connected to the development of the property. According to the sources, Granzow had properly disclosed his interest and his involvement was approved by ethics officials in the county.
One part of the development was to include a new fire station.
We should point out again that there is no indication that Karl Granzow Jr. or any of the others who were targeted in the 2008 raids have been charged with any crimes in connection with these investigations.
Government agencies in twin polygamous communities along the Utah-Arizona border were served Tuesday with search warrants seeking evidence on suspected misuse of public funds, authorities said.
Photo by Mark Havnes, Salt Lake Tribune
The Mohave County Sheriff’s Office said warrants were served at fire stations and private residences in Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah.
“There’s an investigation being conducted by the county attorney’s office at this time for a possible misuse of public funds and fraudulent schemes at the fire department and possibly the city government,” Sheriff Tom Sheahan told The Associated Press.
Sheahan said the allegations were specific to City Manager David Darger and Fire Chief Jake Barlow, both in Colorado City. Telephones messages left for the two officials were not immediately returned.
No one was arrested, and Sheahan said officers were expected to wrap up the searches later in the day.
Investigators were looking for documents and computers files, including financial records at both the offices and homes of Barlow and Darger, Sheahan said.
The twin communities are home to members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, an embattled religious sect that follows Warren Jeffs, a church leader serving prison time after being convicted of rape as an accomplice in the marriage of a 14-year-old follower to her 19-year-old cousin.
Management of the twin towns and the FLDS have been under increasing scrutiny since 2005, following allegations of an increase in underage marriages and misuse of a church property trust.
Five warrants were served in Colorado City — three at fire stations and one each at the homes of Darger and Barlow. The lone Utah warrant was served on the Hildale fire station.
Sheahan said officers had to forcibly enter one home after residents refused requests from police to open the doors.
A Washington County Sheriff's Office vehicle ata Hildale, Utah fire station today. Photo by Jud Burkett, The Spectrum
Salt Lake City attorney Rod Parker, who represents the FLDS, said he had not yet seen the warrants and was unclear about the scope of information being sought.
The FLDS founded the twin towns in the mid-20th century, and its members make up the majority of residents, operate most businesses and work in all levels of city government and services.
The FLDS practice polygamy in arranged marriages, a tradition tied to the early theology of the mainstream Mormon church. Mormons denounced the practice in the 1890s.
The faith is engaged in a protracted legal battle with the attorneys general of Utah and Arizona for control of the $110 million church trust.
Jeffs, 53, resigned as president of the FLDS church in 2007 but is believed to remains the faith’s ecclesiastical leader.
He is currently in Mohave County Jail awaiting two criminal trials related to the underage marriage of sect girls. He is already serving two consecutive sentences of five years to life on the Utah conviction of rape as an accomplice.
In 2008, Texas authorities raided an FLDS ranch in Eldorado. More than 430 children were temporarily in state custody after the raid, which also resulted in the filing of criminal charges adjacent a dozen sect men, including Jeffs.
It was unclear how the fire department would respond to emergencies while the operation was underway, said Barlow, reached by telephone.
“They will not let the volunteers into the stations or the offices where they are taking information,” said Barlow, reached by telephone. “This is over the top for anything they have the right to do. They are interfering with the public safety of thousands of people. I’m trusting that the staff and battalion chief have it under control.”
However, investigators had fire personnel move their equipment outside the buildings so they could respond to any calls that may come in.
Barlow said that over the past two years the department has complied with numerous subpoenas for information by Arizona authorities based on an unspecified allegation.
The warrants apparently authorized removal of computers and records and, while the investigation was launched by Arizona officials, were signed by judges in both states, said Rod Parker, a Salt Lake City attorney. Parker does not represent the fire department but has represented other FLDS members in court matters.
The Colorado City Fire Department serves the Utah side of the community through an interlocal agreement. In addition to the main station, there are three substations — two in Colorado City and a third in Hildale. The fire department has about six full-time staff and 100 trained volunteer emergency medical technicians, firefighters and paramedics.
Onlookers, including some of the department’s volunteer firefighters, gathered outside the main station this morning, photographing and videotaping the operation. Many other residents were driving by the station.
“We’ve always been good for the county and the state and now they want us to go away,” said Brian Meldrum, a volunteer firefighter.
Glen Jeffs, also a volunteer firefighter, said authorities were “on a fishing trip looking for something.”
We have a winner! The very first entry into our top stories contest for 2009 correctly guessed the top story of the year. Even though the rest of that person’s top five weren’t on target, it gave me hope for you people and this contest. Once again, Statter was wrong.
Many of you were blinded by our extensive coverage of PGFD and one man in particular, who at last look was still in the Prince George’s County Detention Center. You will have to scroll way done to number 14 to find his picture on this page. Other entries, including one from a person who should know better, focused way too much on our coverage of the District of Columbia Fire & EMS Department. Only one DC story made the list (but it was a big one at number two). In fact, only eight of the top 20 were local stories from the Washington, DC area. Remember that for next year’s contest. We are global in scope here at STATter911.com (yeah, right!).
To get a winner we had to go deep down to someone who guessed two of the top five. While he had the two top stories in reverse order, author and fire service veteran from Baltimore County Chris Hawley was the only entrant to get more than one out of five. The good news is the two Baltimore boys should have lots to talk about when this one buys lunch.
Our rankings are based on the number of pageviews between January 1 and December 31, 2009 according to Google Analytics. If a story had multiple postings we only counted the top one for our list.
The interesting thing is that the bottom two stories and the 21st story were just nine clicks apart. Their rankings kept changing up until the closing hours of 2009. In the end, a somewhat odd, but newer story from Montgomery County, Maryland moved up, knocking off one of my personal favorites from earlier in the year. Number 21 is the story of Alexandria Fire Department (VA) veteran Doug Townshend who, while off duty, rescued his brother Mike from a burning home. Click here for that story.
Click the Popeye cartoon to see what used to pass for a year-end review at STATter911.com.
By the way, I did this type of year end review, rather than the more humorous (at least I thought so) version of the two previous years, because I thought it would be easier to manage. I am writing this at 4:00 AM on New Years Day, so now I am not so sure. If you miss the old one, here it is (I am sure most of it is still true today anyway).
Obviously isn’t just us taking a look back at 2009 and ahead to 2010. Other fire service sites beat us to the punch. Paul Peluso at Firehouse.com says 2009 was the year of the video (look below for proof). FireRescue1.com has a host of characters writing lots of words under its year in review banner. Billy Goldfeder has a message for the new year at FirefighterCloseCalls.com. Paul Combs has a great thought in his December cartoon at FireEngineering.com. I am sure Bill Schumm will have something to help bring in the new year Firegeezer style and so will many others who share the FireEMSBlogs.com site with this rag. .
And Rhett Fleitz at The Fire Critic, who is a great inspiration and supporter to all of us who blog, has a contest that is better than mine. Rhett is looking for the Fire/EMS Blog of the Year 2009 (now you know why I said those nice things about him). Rhett’s is better because he is promoting it as the contest with the prize where you don’t have to sit across the lunch table from Dave Statter.
Thank you to all who entered our contest. Thank you to all who read and comment each day. Thank you to all who link to STATter911.com and carry our stories. Most important, a happy and safe 2010 to all of you and especially those out there protecting us each and every day.
So, drum roll please! We present our 20 most popular stories from 2009:
This was the story that dominated 2009 on STATter911.com. Not only did the posting on May 30 (our fourth posting on the topic) bring in 43 percent more pageviews than our number two story for the year, three other stories on the confrontation would have taken places two, three, and four. When you add up the clicks for the almost 20 stories we posted on this topic they account for about five-percent of the overall traffic on the blog for 2009.
There have been more than 700 comments (actually a lot more than that, but many we couldn’t publish). A couple of comments still arrive each week.
I think the reason for the high numbers, besides being a hot topic, is that we apparently reached way beyond our normal fire and EMS service audience on this story. It helps that the YouTube video above, which has more than two million views, has our link in its description.
As much grief as I get for carrying too many negative stories on the blog, the only reason the world knew about this one is because I was trying to do a good deed and post some positive news. On Wednesday, October 7 there were two sprinkler demonstrations scheduled in the National Capital region. One at Gallaudet University and the other at the University of Maryland (at MFRI). My goal was to get to both of them, but the Maryland one was the priority because of the release of a study about Prince George’s County’s mandatory residential sprinkler law. I never made it to DC and no one said anything to me about a problem during that demonstration.
As I was about to leave work the following evening I was feeling guilty the DC sprinkler video didn’t get any play in my story the day before (there had been a photographer on the scene from LNS, the local news service run by my station and two others in Washington). I pulled the video up with the intention of editing something for the blog and possibly WUSA9.com. Of course, as I watched the video, I immediately realized there was a little bit more to this demonstration.
This entry had 128 comments. More comments came in after Chief Dennis Rubin, when talking about what he saw, used the term “comedy act”.
Firefighter Will Gregory exits the home with his PPE on fire. Photo by Brian Haney, The Daily Record.
This was a late entry for the year. It came about because FirefighterCloseCalls.com first put out the story of the close call based on the newspaper article by Brian Haney at The Daily Record in Dunn, NC. Figuring that there might be more than one photo, I called Mr. Haney and he told me he had shot 210 images from that fire. Brian sent a bunch to STATter911.com and gave us permission to use the photos.
Until a day or two ago, this was in the number three spot for the year. In my heart I wish it was number one. I was blogging away on the Friday afternoon that Ladder 26 wrecked trying to keep up with the developments from Boston. Later in the evening when we learned that Lt. Kevin Kelley was the firefighter killed, it didn’t take long to find his appearances from Firehouse USA on the web. How can you not smile when you watch these?
While I get a lot of stories and videos from your tips, this is one I found all by myself. Going through fire related YouTube videos on a Sunday evening I happened upon this clip. I usually don’t run controlled burning type training exercises, but this one looked different. After picking my jaw off the floor upon seeing the unusual PPV via the leaf blower, I decided this was one worthy of a wider audience.
You have to admit this one was different. The 160-foot Spirit of Washington squeezed the 72-foot John H. Glenn Jr., putting a big gash in the Glenn’s hull and sidelining the boat for many months. The collision also crushed a small FBI boat at an adjacent dock.
This is a rather simple story of a rescue in that it was popular despite there being no video of the event. Firefighters saving the day when it looks like that might be impossible.
Here’s how WZZM-TV’s Lambrini Lukidis described the story:
Kelysse LaBelle is full of energy today. But when fireman Scott Campau rescued her from the bottom of Fisherman’s Landing in Muskegon last week, Kelysse was purple, her eyes were gray and lifeless.
“The stroller was actually sitting up-right on its wheels on the bottom of the lake and she was unconscious,” said Campau.
“She wasn’t breathing, no heart rate,” said Battalion Chief Ken Chudy who lead the team on the call. “She was lifeless when we pulled her out of the water,” said Fireman Kevin McMillan also assisted by firemen Chad Horn and Scott Hemmeslbach.
Eight Prince George’s County firefighters were hurt when an explosion occurred while they were investigating a natural has leak at a shopping center in Forestville.
Truly one of the great stories of the year. John and Joel Rechlitz received national attention for their off-duty rescue of a young boy from a burning car. Their efforts didn’t stop after the rescue. The firefighters remained close to D.J. Harper and his family. Click here.
In December, 2008 Continental Flight 1404 ran off a runway and burst into flames at Denver International Airport. This was the audio as the airport tower controllers directed firefighters to the scene.
The fireground audio provided by Erie County Fire wire was very difficult to listen to as these two men responded to a call for help inside the burning building on Genesee Street.
Layoffs and budget cuts were THE story of 2009. We saw a lot of stories like this one, but for some reason the Flint fire got more attention than the others.
What more can I say about this frequent subject of STATter911.com stories. In the interview Jerry Engle told us all about an arson ring involving firefighters. Later in the year Engle and another former volunteer from Riverdale were both charged with the fire Jerry told us about. If you haven’t read enough about him, click here for our Jerry archive.
A touching tribute to firefighters who were lost 50-years earlier. The incident is believed to be the first time the term BLEVE was used to describe the rupture and rocketing of a flammable liquid container during a fire.
It took teamwork and a lot of guts as a dispatcher and engine company worked to save a woman trapped in an apartment fire started thanks to a neighbor’s meth lab. Video shows Chad Meyer from Engine 26 basically walking through fire to bring out Nikki Cain.
This entry from Montgomery County had to be one of the more unusual stories of the year. A firefighter’s date spent the night at the firehouse and got lost on the way to the bathroom.
What this means is that, even though Kyle Wilson died in a house fire in April, 2007 and the report was released nine-months later, firefighters are still interested in learning from this tragic situation. Enough people searched, found and apparently read that entry in 2009 to make it part of our top 20.
The Washington Post reports the FBI raided two Prince George’s County, MD government office buildings on Saturday as part of a probe into a very large new development planned near the Metro stop in Greenbelt.
Grand jury subpoenas have been distributed and it appears one of the people investigators are interested in is a part-time employee of the Prince George’s County Fire/EMS Department. Among the places raided by the agents is 9201 Basil Court in Largo. That building is the headquarters for the fire department and another agency.
Two law enforcement sources said agents used a search warrant to enter the offices of J. Michael Dougherty, the county’s director of finance. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the raids.
A government source, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said agents also raided a government building that houses offices of the fire department and information technology systems.
The scope of the FBI investigation was not clear. However, the source with knowledge of the subpoenas said they sought information about contacts with prominent lobbyists and developers. They included Michael Arrington, who has been a lobbyist for one of the partners in the Greenbelt project, and developers Patrick Ricker and Daniel Colton, the source said.
Colton, who was released from prison in 2004 after serving three years for bank fraud, and Ricker did not immediately return calls seeking comment. Arrington said he was unaware of a probe and had no comment. Dougherty also could not immediately be reached.
The subpoenas also sought information about former County Council member Thomas R. Hendershot, who in December was hired as a temporary, part-time employee with the fire department. Hendershot declined to comment yesterday.
Before leaving office in 2006, the New Carrollton Democrat pushed zoning legislation that benefited the development. Although the property around Greenbelt station was zoned for industrial use, Hendershot’s 2001 legislation allowed mixed-use development as long as it is of “high quality and sophistication.”
County Executive Jack B. Johnson (D) did not return a call for comment. James Keary, a spokesman for Johnson, said FBI agents “positively did not” go into his offices yesterday. He said he could provide no other information about the raid, but said that neither Johnson nor his top aides have engaged in any wrongdoing.
“This is, what, the third fishing expedition?” he said, referring to other investigations in the county that have not resulted in indictments. “They have not yet caught even a minnow.”
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