East Texas fire chief accused of stealing from client

WOOD COUNTY — Perryville Volunteer Fire Chief Daniel Charles Alexander was arrested earlier this month for theft of service after failing to work on a construction project that was already paid for, an affidavit said.

According to our news partner KETK, Alexander signed a contract to construct a 40×40 shop building for the victim in exchange for $38,796 on March 19. The victim said Alexander wrote the size of the building as 30×40 in the contract, an affidavit said. The victim contacted Alexander to explain that the size of the building was incorrect and Alexander responded by adding $10,443 to the quoted price of the job due to the change in size, according to the affidavit.

The contact was not formally changed and both parties settled during a verbal agreement.

Alexander informed the victim that he did not have enough money to buy the material needed for the project and asked the victim to pay upfront for the project. The affidavit said the upfront payment included material and labor costs, which came out to $49,239. The victim wrote two checks to Alexander, with one check valued at $38,796 on March 20 and the other check valued at $10,443 on April 1.

According to the affidavit, the victim asked Alexander to begin construction several times through phone calls, but Alexander never started the project, and he would sometimes ignore the victim’s phone calls. After Alexander gave many excuses for not starting the job, the victim filed a theft of service report on June 18 with the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office.

Text messages between the victim and Alexander show the agreement that was exchanged between the two parties. According to Wood County Jail records, Alexander was booked for a theft of service charge on July 17 and was released four days later.