KELLER, Texas -- The city placed a Keller fire captain on paid administrative leave Monday after a City Council candidate filed a complaint that the firefighter had confronted and harassed him while he was campaigning.
Place 4 Candidate Marcus McCrary said he filed the complaint with the city because of escalating events during the campaign, the last of which he said occurred Saturday at the Keller Farmer's Market.
McCrary said the firefighter, a supporter of opposing candidate Bill Dodge, "verbally accosted" him.
"He got right in my face and started berating me about breaking the law with my signs being on city property. He kept asking, 'How do you like breaking the law?'" McCrary said in the e-mail. "I had to physically back up several times to get my space back and for a second or so, thought he was actually going to physically assault me."
"As a result of [his] unprovoked, aggressive personal attack in front of several other people, I filed a complaint with the city manager and the Keller Police Department because I don't believe this type of behavior should be tolerated from anyone in our community," McCrary said.
McCrary said previous incidents include the firefighter driving by his house, yelling, honking and holding a thumbs-down sign, and the firefighter blocking McCrary's booth at a public event while passing out flyers in support of Dodge.
Keller's director of public safety, Police Chief Mark Hafner, said that a criminal investigation was completed and that the firefighter, an 18-year veteran of the department, was cleared of any criminal wrongdoing.
"His conduct did not rise to the level of a criminal offense," Hafner said. "For our purposes, the criminal investigation is closed, and there will be no further action."
Hafner said placing a firefighter on paid leave is a standard procedure when someone files an allegation of wrongdoing.
A separate investigation is being conducted by the Keller Fire Department to determine whether the firefighter's conduct violated any city or Fire Department policies.
The firefighter said he didn't want to comment while the investigation is ongoing. The Star-Telegram is not identifying him because the Fire Department's investigation has not been completed.
A witness to Saturday's incident said the firefighter didn't physically touch McCrary and didn't identify himself as a Keller firefighter but was loud and belligerent.
"He came over, charged up to him and started being aggressive and loud," said Fort Worth resident Blake Wofford. "My first thought was 'Oh no, there's going to be a fight.'"
Wofford said that at that point McCrary stepped back, but the firefighter continued.
"He was aggressive, he was loud, he was horrible," Wofford said. "He tried to be loud and boisterous ... he did his best to publicly embarrass the candidate."
Wofford said that he had never met either of the men before the incident but that McCrary handled the situation well and never raised his voice.
Dodge said he doesn't want to get side-tracked by this incident, which he said was a last-ditch effort by McCrary to get his name out to the public.
Copyright 2012 - Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
