Judge issues dismissal/acquittal for former Boyceville ambulance chief
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
MENOMONIE — Former Boyceville EMS Chief Matthew Feeney has fulfilled the terms of a Deferred Acceptance of a Guilty Plea (DAGP) agreement, and Judge John F. Manydeeds has issued a judgement of dismissal/acquittal.
Feeney was charged with two misdemeanor counts of fraudulent data alteration and theft in a business setting of less than $2,500.
He pleaded “no contest” June 11 in Dunn County Circuit Court to the misdemeanor charge of fraudulent data alteration related to bookkeeping for the Boyceville Community Ambulance Service.
Dunn County Circuit Court Judge Rod Smeltzer was initially assigned to the case, but after an application on April 13 for a different judge, the case was assigned to Eau Claire County Circuit Court Judge John F. Manydeeds.
Feeney formerly worked as a deputy for the Dunn County Sheriff’s Department.
As part of a plea agreement, Judge Manydeeds did not accept Feeney’s plea of “no contest” to the misdemeanor charge of fraudulent data alteration, but instead, accepted the Deferred Acceptance of a Guilty Plea and scheduled a deferred prosecution agreement hearing for December 13.
Judge Manydeeds also dismissed the second misdemeanor count of theft in a business setting of less than $2,500 but ordered it read into the court record.
The judgement of dismissal/acquittal was issued December 8 after Judge Manydeeds determined on December 7 that the agreement had been fulfilled, according to online court records.
A motion for dismissal was filed with the court on December 6.
The Boyceville Ambulance District Board of Directors in November of 2019 ordered a full audit of the district’s finances for 2016, 2017 and 2018 and placed EMS Chief Matthew Feeney and Captain Tessa Feeney on administrative leave.
According to the complaint, a detective with the Barron County Sheriff’s Department met with Feeney on November 12, 2019.
The detective told Feeney someone with the Boyceville ambulance service had discovered purchase orders that had been submitted to the ambulance district board that appeared not to match the ambulance district’s credit card usage.
The detective obtained the purchase orders from January of 2016 to November of 2019, but purchase orders and credit card statements for two months, from February of 2016 and October of 2019, were missing, according to the complaint.
Feeney took over the financial responsibilities for the ambulance district in 2016 after the previous clerk-treasurer for the ambulance district became ill.
When Feeney took over, the ambulance district had annual deficits of around $70,000, although toward the end of his tenure as ambulance service chief, financial statements submitted to the ambulance district board indicated the ambulance service had surpluses at the end of the year.
Feeney’s personal credit was used to obtain a credit card for the ambulance district, according to the complaint.
The case originally had been scheduled to go to trial in May.
