Veteran Kansas City, MO, Firefighter with six DWIs Still Responding

John Speer has spent much of his adult life working for the Kansas City Fire Department.

Indeed, the 48-year-old firefighter has been with KCFD for nearly two decades.

But in addition to battling his share of blazes over the years, Speer has been putting out fires on another front as well. A string of DWI cases. Six of them, court documents reveal, spanning four counties.

Three of the cases were charged as felonies, the records show. In a July 2023 arrest — just five months after a previous arrest — his minor children were riding with him when his speed was clocked at 87 mph. And he’s violated his probation nearly a dozen times since February in a case that remains ongoing.

But Speer has avoided serious prison time and is still on the job, drawing a 2025 salary of $91,814, according to the city. At the time he was hired in October 2006, he had three DWIs on his record.

In May, the judge handling his divorce case issued a ruling on his ex-wife’s request to modify their child custody agreement. In it, he noted that “there exists a history of DWI” cases against Speer.

“Father has been convicted of five DWI/DUI Charges and currently has one pending DWI charge (including felony charges),” the judge wrote.

Neither Speer nor his attorney responded to requests for comment about the cases.

Firefighters and others in public safety roles are the last ones you’d expect to be driving while intoxicated, safety advocates say.

“When it comes to somebody who is out there saving lives and they come across individuals they are trying to help because they’re a first responder, you think they would be the first ones to tell themselves, ‘I don’t want to be in that situation. I can see what happens to individuals,’” said Rita Kreslin, executive director of the Alliance Against Intoxicated Motorists, a nonprofit organization based in Illinois.

“If you are someone that’s there to protect the public and you are jeopardizing the very people that you’re supposed to be serving, that’s just not right.”

Other firefighters with DWI cases

Speer’s is among the most glaring examples of firefighters who remained on the KCFD employee rolls despite DWI cases.

In October, former Kansas City Fire Captain Christopher Siegel was sentenced to 60 days in jail and five years’ probation after pleading guilty to driving while intoxicated in Clay County in May 2023 — his fourth DWI since 2016.

Siegel, who remained on the job for more than 16 months after his arrest, also was ordered to finish serving three more years of probation from a 2021 felony DWI case. He had violated his probation in that case several times.

In August, Antonino Giarraputo pleaded guilty to DWI after being cited in Platte County in October 2024, just seven months after he was hired by the Kansas City Fire Department. Court records showed it wasn’t his first DWI.

After Giarraputo was sentenced to two years of probation and 10 days of “shock time” in the Platte County Detention Center, the judge granted his request for work release during those 10 days so he could keep his firefighter job.

And in April, firefighter Michael Van Horn pleaded guilty to DWI after a July 2024 incident in which he was caught driving the wrong way at 1:30 a.m. on Missouri 152. A Platte County sheriff’s deputy had to use stop sticks to bring his SUV to a halt, the charging documents showed.

Van Horn was placed on two years of probation and continues to work for KCFD.

Battalion Chief Michael Hopkins, fire department spokesperson, confirmed in an email that Speer is still employed and holds the position of firefighter. Hopkins did not comment, however, on why KCFD employs those with multiple DWI convictions, including felonies.

When hiring new employees, the city runs background checks on the applicants, said Jordan Berger, with the city’s Human Resources Department, in an email to The Star. If they have a felony conviction or three misdemeanor convictions in the last three years, the Human Resources Committee reviews the conviction along with the duties and nature of the position to determine whether the applicant is fit for employment, Berger said.

A current employee who is arrested for a felony, serious misdemeanor or a city ordinance violation that alleges bodily harm is required to report the incident to their department director, Berger said. The director will then decide whether to suspend the employee without pay or reassign the person to a less sensitive position pending the outcome of the case.

“It is the employee’s responsibility to keep their department updated on the progress of the case,” Berger said. “They can use vacation or free days to cover the time of their suspension.

“If an employee is subsequently found guilty or pleads guilty or no contest, their employment can be terminated,” he said. “If they are found not guilty, their leave will be restored and/or they will be awarded backpay for any salary lost during the suspension.”

The Kansas City, Kansas, Fire Department takes a tougher stance on felony convictions and DWI cases, which it refers to as DUIs.

According to a 2022 posting for firefighter trainee positions, KCKFD disqualifies applicants who have multiple DUIs, a DUI in the past three years or a felony conviction.

A string of drunken driving charges

Court records show that Speer’s DWI cases date back to 1999, when he was found guilty in Nodaway County Circuit Court that May of driving while intoxicated on Jan. 31, 1999.

On Jan. 9, 2001, he was again found guilty of DWI in Nodaway County, for driving drunk on Aug. 24, 2000.

Speer got another DWI in late 2001, this time in Clay County. Court records show he was charged on Dec. 20, 2001, with DWI-persistent offender, a class D felony. After he pleaded guilty on April 4, 2002, the judge sentenced him to 180 days in jail, then suspended 105 of those days and ordered him to serve 75 days in the Clay County Detention Center, followed by 60 days of electronic monitoring and two years of probation.

The judge also authorized work release for Speer during his incarceration. But on May 6, 2002 — one month into his jail time — the work release authorization was rescinded, court records show, “due to defendant’s failure to follow all rules of the program and Missouri statutes.”

Speer’s probation ended on April 12, 2004.

On Aug. 28, 2008, Speer was found guilty in Platte County Circuit Court of driving while intoxicated on March 8, 2008, court documents show.

He was charged again on Nov. 1, 2023, this time by a grand jury in Clay County Circuit Court.

According to the indictment, Speer was driving under the influence of alcohol on Feb. 4, 2023, near the intersection of Liberty Drive and Wilshire Boulevard in Clay County. The charge: DWI-aggravated offender, a class D felony.

Speer was placed on house arrest, but his request to leave home for work was granted. He pleaded guilty on Nov. 12, 2024, court records show, and was sentenced to five years in prison. The judge then suspended execution of the sentence and placed him on five years’ probation.

Speer also was ordered to serve 60 days’ shock time in the Clay County Detention Center. After that, he was to wear a device for a minimum of 90 days that continuously monitors alcohol levels in the body.

The judge approved Speer’s request for work release while he was in jail. But one week after his sentencing, the work release was revoked at the request of the jail.

Three days later, on Nov. 22, 2024, Speer’s attorney filed a motion requesting his work release be reinstated, saying, “Defendant has an essential job as he is employed by Kansas City Fire Department.” The online court docket doesn’t show the results of that request.

Speer was released from jail in January 2025. On Feb. 4, he was arrested for a probation violation — consumption of alcohol. At a Feb. 18, 2025, hearing, the court found him in violation and continued his probation with some modifications.

That began a steady stream of probation violations, arrests and hearings that continue to this day. Probation violation reports — 11 in all — were filed March 31, May 5, May 28, July 28, Sept. 8, Sept. 23, Oct. 20, Nov. 3, Nov. 24 and Dec. 2. Each time, Speer has been found to be in violation and his probation has been continued subject to some modifications, the details of which are not included on the docket.

At one point — on May 8 — Speer’s then-attorney filed a motion asking to withdraw as his counsel, saying that he “can no longer ethically continue to represent the Defendant.”

Clocked at 87 mph with kids in car

On July 28, 2023, while his Clay County case was still underway, Speer was stopped for DWI in Henry County. He was charged in Henry County Circuit Court on Feb. 15, 2024, with DWI-aggravated offender, a class D felony; two counts of endangering the welfare of children, a class D felony; and speeding, a class C misdemeanor.

According to the probable cause statement filed with the charges, Missouri Highway Patrol Sgt. W.P. Bremer pulled Speer over along Missouri 7 west of Route O for driving 87 mph in a 70 mph zone.

“While speaking with Speer, I noticed his two juvenile sons were passengers in the vehicle,” Bremer wrote. “As I continued to speak with Speer, I detected an odor of intoxicants emitting from the vehicle. When questioned, Speer admitted to drinking vodka earlier in the day. After administering a variety of field sobriety tests, I placed Speer under arrest for driving while intoxicated.”

Speer was taken to a hospital in Clinton, where a blood sample was drawn, the statement said. A check of his driving record showed that he had previous alcohol-related convictions, it said.

The toxicology report came back on Aug. 31, 2023, Bremer wrote. “The report revealed Speer’s ethyl alcohol was .186%.” The legal blood alcohol concentration limit for driving in Missouri is 0.08%.

Speer pleaded guilty to the DWI charge on April 25, 2025, and the other three charges were dismissed as part of the plea agreement. He was sentenced to seven years in the Department of Corrections, then the judge suspended execution of the sentence and placed him on five years of probation. The judge also ordered him to serve three days of shock time in jail, noting that he’d previously spent 60 days for being a repeat DWI offender.

Court records show probation violation reports were filed against Speer on Sept. 8 and Sept. 23 in his Henry County case.

The Clay and Henry county cases have caught the eye of the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, which licenses paramedics and EMTs. An Oct. 7 letter to the courts said the department had filed a case with the Administrative Hearing Commission to discipline Speer’s EMS license.

‘I fully atone for my mistakes’

A month after Speer’s arrest in Henry County, his ex-wife filed a motion in Clay County Circuit Court to modify their 2021 child custody plan. The Aug. 25, 2023, motion cited Speer’s drinking problem and called him a “habitual offender.”

The motion mentioned Speer’s July 28, 2023, arrest and the fact that the couple’s children were riding with him at the time. It said that he also was pulled over for speeding — going 56 mph in a 35 mph zone — on Feb. 4, 2023.

“The minor child was in the car at the time of the incident,” the motion said, adding that because of Speer’s actions, his ex-wife was concerned for the children’s safety when they were with him.

His ex-wife asked to be awarded sole physical and legal custody of their two minor children. The court issued a judgment on May 20, 2025, granting her custody request and laying out the rules and schedule for visitation.

Speer wrote a letter to the judge two weeks before the ruling was issued, expressing “the love I have for my children” and pleading with him to allow joint custody.

“As I expressed in court, I fully atone for my mistakes,” he wrote. “I have hundreds of hours of one-on-one therapy, seven months of intensive outpatient therapy, 106 days of inpatient therapy ... My boys, safety and well-being is the upmost responsibility at this time.

“They deserve a sober, healthy, happy Dad. I feel that the mental baggage/PTSD from my job, my childhood upbringing and severely declining relationship with my ex-wife over the ending eight years of our marriage, played a key role in my emotional, physical and mental decline.”

But now, he said, “I am not the man I used to be.”

©2025 The Kansas City Star. Visit kansascity.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.