Lower Southampton Officer Stole $51K From Fire Company To Fund Wedding, Buy Wave Runner: DA

A Lower Southampton police officer has been arrested and charged with misappropriating more than $51,000 belonging to the Feasterville Volunteer Firefighters Relief Association, the Bucks County District Attorney's office announced Tuesday.

Brian Walter, 33, misused the money by making improper loans to himself and five others while serving as vice president, treasurer and secretary of the association’s executive board, according to a Bucks County Investigating Grand Jury presentment made public Tuesday.

The money was used to fund his wedding, his brother's wedding, and buy a $5,500 Wave Runner, among other things, according to authorities.

Once the checks were under investigation by state authorities, Walter, a Feasterville resident and officer with the department since March 2007, falsified a series of documents to conceal the transactions, according to information from the Bucks County District Attorney's office.

The charges are related to his role as a Feasterville VFRA official, not to his role as a township police officer, authorities say.

According to the District Attorney's office, the money was used to finance two weddings, a Wave Runner, a down payment on a house, high interest credit card debt, tuition bills and rent for another Feasterville Fire Company member, according to authorities.

Walter wrote seven unauthorized checks for loans, ranging from $15,000 to $1,000, to himself and others, authorities said. The following checks were issued, authorities said:

• $3,986 on February 10, 2012 to Christopher Woods, which he used to pay a portion of his tuition bill;
• $5,000 on March 19, 2012, to Christopher Cummins, which he used to make a down payment on a house;
• $1,000 on April 17, 2012, to Anthony Cathey, which he used to help pay his rent;
• $12,000 on April 24, 2012, to Brian Walter, of which he used $10,000 to finance his wedding and kept $2,000 as a wedding gift to himself;
• $15,000 on August 8, 2012, to Kevin Walter, Brian Walter’s brother, which he used to finance his own wedding;
• $9,000 on February 18, 2013, to Robert Wallick Jr., which he used to pay off high-interest credit-card debt; and
• $5,500 on July 29, 2013, to Brian Walter, which he used to purchase a Wave Runner.

Brian Walter signed each of the checks at a time when he controlled the executive board, the presentment said. The only two other active members during the period where these checks were written were David Walter, who is Brian Walter’s brother, and Christopher Cummins, one of the loan recipients.

"They were rubber stamps for any action Brian Walter wished to take,” the presentment said.

The unauthorized loans “were memorialized, if at all, by a cryptic case number entry in the meeting minutes,” the presentment said. “No other documentation identified the loans, the purpose behind the loan, the recipient or the repayment schedule.

The misappropriated funds were uncovered by auditors from the Pennsylvania Department of Auditor General.

Walter created "fraudulent, backdated and altered" loan documents that he submitted to the Auditor General to cover his actions, information from the Bucks County District Attorney's office said.

Walter has been charged with theft by failing to make required disposition of funds, a third-degree felony, and three counts of tampering with public records, also third-degree felonies. He also faces several related misdemeanor charges.

Only Walter was charged because it is the executive board’s responsibility to follow the law, and Walter “had total control of the VFRA executive board,” the grand jury said, according to the District Attorney's office.

“While the VFRA executive board was supposed to be a recommending body subject to the will of the entire membership, it was perverted into a secret society for Brian Walter to pay himself, his family and a privileged few,” the grand jury presentment said.

Walter was arraigned and released on $100,000 unsecured bail. A preliminary hearing has been set for March 7.