The former chief of the Delran Emergency Squad was arrested Tuesday on charges that he worked without an active EMT certification and fudged paperwork to hide that.

And when state officials came to the station to talk about it, he allegedly threatened them and hindered the investigation, which resulted in the entire unit's suspension.

Donald Horner (Police photo)

Donald Horner, 66, was charged with insurance fraud, criminal computer activity, tampering with witnesses, making terroristic threats, theft by deception, attempted theft by deception, hindering apprehension, tampering with public records, alteration of medical records, tampering with records and obstructing the administration of law.

Burlington County Prosecutor Scott Coffina announced the charges in a news release Tuesday afternoon/

The squad, where Horner's wife Denise served as a lieutenant, received no money from the township, according to the Burlington County Times. Most of the squad's revenue came from ambulance fees.

However, if an uncertified EMT took part in a transport, the squad could not have billed for those services.

Horner, a former Riverside Police Department officer and its chief from 1995 to 2005, altered 27 reports about calls where he served as a crew member, according to the allegations. Investigators said when he went out on a call, he would replace his name on the paperwork with the name of a certified staffer.

Hearing about this, the state Health department's Office of Emergency Medical Services visited the Delran EMS building for an audit on June 11, 2018, according to a letter from Scot Phelps, the office's paramedic director.

Phelps said the investigators had to leave without learning much because Horner was "belligerent, combative and uncooperative" and told them that he needed to leave before he killed himself or killed them, according to the letter.

"As they started to leave the property, you followed them out, continued to scream and threaten them and, at one point, were nose-to-nose with one of the investigators," Phelps wrote.

The investigators later returned a few days later with Delran police officers, but were restricted access to the reports until they called the squad's president and advised her that blocking access would be hindering the investigation.

The state suspended the squad after seeing the reports that the squad went out on calls without at least two certified EMTs. Horner's EMT certification expired Dec. 31, 2010 and his EMT instructor certification inspired Dec. 31, 2016, but he went on at least 27 calls starting in January 2017.

Other area first aid and rescue squads are staffing Delran's emergency medical calls until the matter is resolved.

Horner had a first appearance in Burlington County Superior Court on Tuesday. He was not detained but had to surrender his passport and firearms.

Josh Dennis, supervisor of the prosecutor's Insurance Fraud Unit, will prosecute.

Joe Brandt can be reached at jbrandt@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JBrandt_NJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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