Boyceville EMS chief charged with 2 misdemeanors in Dunn County
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
MENOMONIE — Boyceville EMS Chief Matthew J. Feeney has been charged with two misdemeanors in Dunn County related to bookkeeping for the Boyceville Community Ambulance Service.
Feeney, who is scheduled to make an initial appearance in Dunn County Circuit Court May 26 before Judge Rod Smeltzer, is charged with one misdemeanor count of fraudulent data alteration and one misdemeanor count of theft in a business setting of less than $2,500.
The complaint was filed in Dunn County Circuit Court April 8.
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 from February of 2016 and October of 2019 were missing, according to the complaint.
The detective reviewed the documents and noticed transactions that seemed inconsistent with the purchase orders and what was on the ambulance service credit card statements.
Some of the items included casual clothing at online stores, Amazon purchases, transactions at a local bar in Boyceville, and purchases from the City of New Richmond during 2019.
The detective spoke with the informant from the ambulance service who said Feeney had been questioned by the ambulance district board about some of the transactions at the ambulance board’s October 16 meeting. The source said it was believed Feeney had shredded and recreated purchase orders that had previously been submitted to the board in an attempt to cover illegal transactions. The person had made copies of the originals before Feeney was questioned by the ambulance district board and had turned the copies over to law enforcement. The source at the ambulance service said Feeney did not know the originals had been copied, according to the complaint.
Itemized
The detective met with the informant from the ambulance service and the chair of the ambulance district board to discuss the purchase orders and receipts on November 13.
Copies of the new purchase orders that were changed after October 16 were shown to the detective. The new purchase orders showed more itemization and had notes indicating Feeney had repaid the ambulance district for the credit card charges since the October 16 meeting. The detective also received a bag of shredded paper believed to contain the original purchase orders, according to the complaint.
The detective reviewed the purchase orders to figure out which ones Feeney had changed and observed changes for March of 2018 and for January, February, March, April and May of 2019 as well as August, September and October of 2019. The revised purchase orders indicated there was payment by “1300” which is Feeney’s badge number at the ambulance district.
Feeney and his attorney met with the detective November 20, 2019.
Feeney said he was hired in June of 2010 as the ambulance service chief and was hired to “fix” the ambulance service. In 2016, after the clerk-treasurer for the ambulance district died, Feeney took over the financial responsibilities for the ambulance district. Feeney said the ambulance district did not have any credit card policies when he took over as chief but that he had enacted policies. One policy was that if a credit card was used for personal purchases, the purchase was to be paid back to the ambulance district, although there was no timeframe for paying back the ambulance district.
Feeney said the ambulance district board knew about the policy, and that the reason he had been questioned was because of new members on the ambulance district board. The credit card bill comes to Feeney and his wife, and Feeney’s personal credit was used to obtain a credit card for the ambulance district, according to the complaint.
Netflix
The detective asked Feeney if he used the ambulance district credit card for personal purchases, and Feeney said, “the short answer is ‘yes.’”
Feeney said the Netflix account paid for by the ambulance district is his personal account but that the ambulance district has its own Amazon and Sam’s Club accounts.
All of the financial work for the ambulance district is tracked through the computer program Quickbooks. Purchase orders are made out each month for the bills the ambulance district has that month, Feeney said.
The ambulance district board questioned Feeney about purchasing diesel fuel for his personal truck at the October 16 meeting. Feeney met with the ambulance district board in closed session October 23 to clarify the purchase orders, and the ambulance district board was “fine with his clarification.” Feeney told the detective he does not owe the ambulance district any money and all of the checks have been written, according to the complaint.
One of the revised purchase orders for February of 2019, for example, showed Feeney had reimbursed the ambulance district for $62.39 for a “welcome back party.” The March of 2019 revised purchase order showed Feeney had reimbursed $60. The original purchase order was in the amount of $131.18 for a Microsoft Word suite monthly charge, but the revised order showed a charge of $71.18, and Feeney said the $60 was most likely iTunes, according to the complaint.
In April of 2019, the original purchase order showed $463.72 for office supplies, but the revised purchase order listed office supplies in the amount of $234.62 and that Feeney paid back $299.10. Feeney said the amount was for Audible and Amazon. The May of 2019 purchase order shows Feeney reimbursed $90.64 worth of diesel fuel.
The detective confirmed with Feeney that everything had been paid back.
Checks listed in the complaint showed Feeney had written out five checks totaling a little over $1,600.
The detective reviewed the reimbursement checks Feeney had written and asked if there would be a single reimbursement check for 2018. Feeney said reimbursement checks written in September and October of 2019 covered all personal purchases going back to January of 2016 when the credit card was first used.
When the detective asked why Feeney would go back four years to pay for purchases now, Feeney “blamed it on laziness on his part.” Feeney said he did not think it was an issue because he was still employed by the ambulance service and said he wanted “to get things taken care of prior to the 2020 budget to have a fresh start,” according to the complaint.
Spark
Feeney told the detective he had not stolen anything and that he owes the ambulance district board nothing.
Repaying the money he owed just prior to the meeting where he was questioned by the ambulance district board about credit card usage was “a complete coincidence,” Feeney said.
The detective told Feeney a forensic audit would be completed, and Feeney said “he was ecstatic about this because it would show the thousands of dollars his family has donated.”
Feeney said if he wanted to take money, “he could cash the bonus checks from the credit card purchases,” according to the complaint.
In the bag of shredded paper the detective had received, he found pieces of credit card that had the names of four individuals, one of which was Matthew Feeney. The credit cards were Spark business cards, and under each name on each card was included “BCVL CMNT AMBLNC DST,” the complaint states.
“Spark” refers to Capitol One Spark for Business cards, which pay a one-time $500 cash bonus after spending $4,500 within three months of opening the credit cards.
According to the complaint, the detective spoke with the Boyceville Community Ambulance District Board on March 30 and learned that none of the board members had given Feeney permission to make personal purchases with the ambulance district’s credit card.
Fraudulent data alteration and misdemeanor theft are Class A misdemeanors that carry a possible maximum penalty, upon conviction, of a fine of up to $10,000 and/or up to nine months in jail.
