Jerry Hickman speaks about the firefighter ‘stolen valor’ controversy involving his Facebook posts
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Previous coverage of this story for Hickman’s previous comments
Read Jerry Hickman’s email exchange with an Evansville firefighter who confronted him
Jerry Hickman, the man at the center of the “stolen valor” controversy involving his Facebook posts, keeps making news in Evansville, Indiana. The latest news coverage comes from the newspaper where the photographer works who took the picture of the tragic Evansville apartment fire on September 7, 2011 that killed a woman and critically injured her two daughters. The photographer is Jason Clark of the Evansville Courier & Press. The image, according to screen grabs that have been published and accounts of people who say they saw the original post, was posted to Hickman’s Facebook page along with comments where Hickman indicated he was the firefighter in the picture.
But Jerry Hickman tells a different story in a voice mail message left for Courier & Press publisher Jack Pate. Listen (above) as Hickman says that all of this has occurred because he was hacked. You will hear Hickman make accusations about District of Columbia firefighter Chris Dufresne, who apparently was the first to confront Hickman about the picture that was posted (see the image below).
The picture that we’ve all seen connected with Jerry Hickman’s Facebook posts is clearly that of Captain Don Spindler of the Evansville Fire Department. It shows Captain Spindler leaving the burning apartment building with one of the injured girls. That it’s Spindler in the picture is NOT at issue here. But Hickman claims what we have been seeing is not the original image he posted.
While he doesn’t say it in the voice mail, Hickman has made it very clear in his many comments and emails the picture he posted before it was hacked was from a fire about 15-years-ago. Hickman also has says he was wearing different PPE than Spindler and that he didn’t rescue the girl from the fire but that she was handed off to him by another firefighter. Hickman also has said the girl he was holding was a different age and that, unlike the girl Capt. Spindler carried, the one in his arms died.
The credibility problem Hickman faces is that he is unable or unwilling to share the original photo or tell us where the incident he was involved in occurred. Despite repeated requests by me and many others, he won’t even make public the name of the town or the fire department. Hickman has posted that he is trying to protect the privacy of the girl’s family.
In my messages to Hickman, I’ve pointed out what seems pretty obvious here: Publishing her picture is more of a potential invasion of privacy than telling us where you worked or volunteered as a firefighter when this occurred. Each time I make these points to Hickman he has failed to respond in any way.
Here’s an excerpt from the Courier & Press article by Zach Evans:
Evansville Fire Department spokesman Dan Grimm said there isn’t anything the department can do.
“Is he a jerk? Yeah, probably. As far as doing anything illegal, I don’t think so,” Grimm said.
It’s strange someone would make something like that up, he said. “But we’re not going to let one person distract from the hundreds of thousands of public safety officials that risk their lives every day to protect citizens,” he said.
Spindler, who received the state’s Award of Valor for his actions that day, isn’t one to busk for public credit for his heroism, Grimm said.
“He’s not one that would take the limelight. He’s one of those guys that says, ‘I’m just doing my job,’” he said.
In the video below the grandmother of the girl being carried by Captain Spindler speaks out about this mess. In addition to the phone message above, Hickman sent an email to WFIE-TV reporter Jessica Schmidt that pretty much covers the same ground. Click here to read the email.
