Phony Fire Chief Gets Six Months Man Convinced Pennsylvania Department To Give Him A Truck

A Ferry County impostor who hooked a 100-foot ladder truck from a Pennsylvania fire department was sentenced Tuesday to six months in jail for pretending to be a fire chief.

Dave Pace, “chief” of the nonexistent Kettle Valley Fire Department, also must pay $2,600 in fines and fees, Superior Court Judge Larry Kristianson ruled.

The fine and two years of supervised probation Kristianson ordered were more than Prosecutor Steve Graham requested.

Graham sought a $600 fine and two years of unsupervised probation, but a nine-month jail term.

Pace, 52, was convicted last month of firstdegree criminal impersonation for falsely claiming to be a Curlew-area fire chief. He embellished the role in numerous phone conversations that persuaded the Community Fire Company of Cornwall Borough to donate a 1961 American LaFrance aerial ladder truck.

However, the jury refused to convict Pace of first-degree theft as charged. Because of that, Kristianson denied Graham’s request for Pace to pay $4,995 in restitution to the company that shipped the truck and didn’t get paid.

Graham said he was “disappointed” that no restitution was ordered, but noted the shipping company won a default judgment against Pace in a civil lawsuit. It will be difficult for the company to collect the money because Pace has few assets and the judgment will take a back seat to the criminal fine, Graham said.

Kristianson told Pace he was disappointed to see him in court again so soon after shooting up the Blue Cougar tavern and an apartment complex in Curlew in March 1996. No one was hurt in that incident, in which Pace went home and got a handgun after being beaten at the tavern by a man who thought his wife was flirting with Pace.

Pace pleaded guilty to second-degree assault in that case, and was sentenced to 151 days in jail. He got credit for 31 days served, 30 days of community service and 90 days of inpatient treatment at a Veterans Affairs hospital.

Kristianson ordered Pace to report to the county jail June 1 to serve his new sentence unless he files an appeal and posts a $5,000 bond.

Until then, the firetruck is to remain in Sheriff Pete Warner’s custody.

If Pace doesn’t appeal, ownership of the truck will revert to the Cornwall fire department. Cornwall Chief Mike Tribioli said during Pace’s trial that the Cornwall department wants the Curlew area’s real fire department, Ferry-Okanogan Fire District 14, to have the truck.

Tribioli gave his blessing to a plan to swap the ladder truck for a brush rig that would be more useful.

Curlew has no buildings taller than two stories, a fact Tribioli said Pace failed to mention in their conversations about the surplus truck.