Former Wilmington Fire Chief Anthony Goode indicted on theft, racketeering charges

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported who paid for a $75,000 discrimination settlement.

Former Wilmington Fire Chief Anthony S. Goode has been indicted on charges of racketeering, theft and unlawful use of a credit card.

Goode, who retired from the Wilmington Fire Department in August, is accused of stealing from Gallant Blazers Inc., a group that has represented Wilmington minority firefighters, according to the Superior Court indictment.

Goode, who was the organization's president at one time, could not be reached for comment.

The three-page indictment does not provide in-depth details of what Goode is accused of, but states that between Jan. 5, 2009, through Oct. 6, 2016, he knowingly participated in a pattern of racketeering while associated with Gallant Blazers.

During this same time period, he is accused of obtaining property belonging to Gallant or others valued at $50,000 "intending to deprive that person or the owner of same, or to appropriate same."

He also faces two charges of unlawful use of Gallant Blazers' credit card.

From Jan. 5, 2009, through June 18, 2014, he racked up more than $1,500 in charges on the card belonging to the organization. Then from June 19, 2014, through Oct. 6, 2016, he charged more than $1,500 to obtain "money, goods, services, or anything of value," according to court documents.

The city and Goode entered into an agreement in January 2017 regarding the manner in which he would leave and still receive a pension, the city said.

The mayor did not know that Goode was under investigation until this week, according to John Rago, the mayor's deputy chief of staff for policy and communiations.

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Goode was supposed to use up his accrued time off and then return to work on a “special assignment” to be decided by Chief Michael Donohue, the city said in January. He was slated to work until October when he would have worked the time necessary to qualify for a traditional pension.

Goode continued to get paychecks based on his $109,546 annual chief salary as he exhausted his accrued vacation time, and his last day was Aug. 11, the city said.

The News Journal asked the mayor's office about the nature and timeline of Goode’s departure.

The city's human resources and law departments wouldn't say when Goode ran out of sick and vacation days, calling it a "personnel matter." Asked to explain the status of Goode's employment between when he ran out his accrued time and his last day, the city referred questions to the state pension office. The pension office said all individual pension information is confidential.

“What that tells me is they put him out on a medical pension,” said City Councilman Bob Williams, a former secretary for the police department’s pension board. “It means you left as a result of an injury that occurred on the job.”

Goode has been open on social media about his struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder after a Sept. 24, 2016, fire that ultimately killed three firefighters.

Rumors around Goode’s work with Gallant Blazers have been circulating for over a year, Williams said.

“I’m disappointed it took this long to come to this conclusion,” he said.

Williams said he reached out to former Mayor Dennis P. Williams’ Chief of Staff Gary Fullman late last year to express his concern about the rumors. The District 7 councilman said he wanted to protect city assets.

“I was assured by Gary that this was a rumor and there was going to be no action,” Williams said.

Fullman, who was recently let go as city council’s chief of staff, said on Tuesday that he doesn’t recall any such conversation.

“I was not aware of any investigation,” Fullman said.

But even if he had known, Fullman said the criminal charges are unrelated to Goode’s city job.

“It had absolutely nothing to do with his performance as chief of fire,” he said.

Story continues after indictment.

Goode recently was the subject of a race-based discrimination suit filed by five white firefighters – Jonathan Hitch, Stephen Sherlock, Adam Risden, James Grieco and Thomas Cunningham.

The charges, which included "serious allegations of substantial misconduct" against Goode, stemmed from firefighters’ claims they were harassed over a residency review investigation conducted in 2016. Wilmington employees must live in the city for five years after being hired.

The firefighters complained the check was a job for the city's residency review board, not their fire chief or his subordinates.

The city settled with the firefighters, awarding each $15,000. Goode was disallowed from being on fire department property or attending fire department events even if he was retained in some capacity by the city. Anti-harassment training was mandated for the department and the city agreed residency reviews would be handled by the review board.

The firefighters dropped all claims against Goode and agreed they’d press no further claims as part of the settlement.

In November, Councilman Williams said he believed Goode was on an “ego trip,” and that he should be held responsible for his subordinates’ actions.

"He chose to abuse his rank and use it for a personal mission to try to discipline some officers," Williams said. "His poor choices have cost the city a substantial sum of money that could've been used to staff his department."

Goode joined the fire department in 1997 and in 2012 former Mayor Dennis P. Williams promoted him from battalion chief to fire chief, replacing Chief William Patrick Jr.

He was interested in doing "big things" in the Williams administration, he told The News Journal, including the possible elimination of rolling bypasses, which shut down a fire engine each day to save money.

He’s the son of Lt. James Goode Jr., who died in the line of duty as a Wilmington firefighter.

Kevin Turner, president of the Wilmington firefighters union commented "“The private legal issues of the former fire chief will not dissuade the focus of our union in improving community relations and ensuring that the City of Wilmington has an adequate number of firefighters to ensure the safety of our community.”

This is a developing story.