After two months of investigation, long-time town Firefighter Dean S. Weeks has been indicted by a Worcester grand jury on four criminal counts stemming from an August dryer fire at his ex-wife's house in which she suffered burns to her legs and hair.
Firefighter Weeks, 49, who has been on paid administrative leave from the Fire Department since Sept. 2, is charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (propane gas), assault and battery on a disabled person causing bodily injury, wanton destruction of property valued over $250, and misleading a police investigation.
He is scheduled to be arraigned tomorrow in Worcester Superior Court.
The Aug. 13 fire at 3 Woodruff Road, off Mill Street Extension near the Lancaster line, was caused by an explosion in the dryer. It was reported around 5 p.m.
Firefighter Weeks' former wife, Doreen Weeks, who has multiple sclerosis, was doing laundry when the dryer suddenly caught fire and exploded. Ms. Weeks told police and a reporter that Firefighter Weeks had worked on the dryer about three weeks earlier.
Their divorce was made final three weeks before the blaze as well.
Ms. Weeks took out a restraining order against Firefighter Weeks on Aug. 20, claiming that he approached her while she was being placed in an ambulance immediately after the fire and threatened that if she "told anyone, he would lose his job and I would get nothing."
The restraining order from Clinton District Court, which is in effect until March 2, says: "I believe that an attempt on my life was involved due to the dryer (propane) that blew up after Dean told me to check the dryer. Therefore I am in fear for my life and very scared."
Yesterday, Ms. Weeks, who has lived in town for 27 years, reiterated that she believes her ex-husband rigged the dryer.
"I did not think so initially, when he was out back uncoiling copper tubing," she said. "But I do now. It's just something you don't want to believe about a man you'd been married to for 15 years. And then he threatened me in the ambulance and was trying to corroborate a story with me."
Clinton police and state police from the state fire marshal's office confiscated the dryer and interviewed neighbors that week.
Clinton Officer Jeffrey J. Frisch, a detective, declined to comment on the nature of the misleading-an-investigation charge, but emphasized that the Clinton Fire Department was "fully cooperative"
"They were put in a tough position," Officer Frisch said.
Fire Chief Richard J. Hart said yesterday he is consulting with lawyers about putting Firefighter Weeks on unpaid leave while charges are pending, but a decision on that will probably be made after the arraignment.
The fire caused about $5,000 in damage to the house. A dog escaped but was later returned.
Firefighter Weeks, who lives at 13 Acre St., was not on duty the day of the Woodruff Road fire, but was at the scene.
Telephone messages left with employees at his two restaurants, in Acton and Marlboro, were not returned yesterday.
It's not the first time there have been fires involving his property or former property.
Tailgaters Grille, a Main Street pub he opened in 2009 about 300 yards from the fire station, burned down in January 2011 while he was on duty.
The cause was deemed accidental when investigators from the fire marshal's office found that a worker refurbishing the pub had moved kitchen equipment and inadvertently broke a gas pipe leading to a steam table.
Firefighter Weeks later opened two new Tailgaters, in Acton and Marlboro.
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