After fourth DWI conviction, former KCFD captain gets brief jail time & probation
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Former KC fire captain sentenced to 60 days in jail and 5 years’ probation in DWI case.
- Judge ordered Siegel to finish 3 years of probation from earlier case, totaling 8 years of probation.
- Records show four DWIs while on KCFD payroll.
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The KCFD Files
A series of stories highlights Kansas City Fire Department employees who have been charged with serious crimes — including fatal crashes, a felony drug case and multiple DWIs — and were allowed to remain on the job, some for years.
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A former Kansas City fire captain who remained on the job for more than a year after his fourth DWI arrest was sentenced Tuesday to 60 days in jail and five years’ probation in connection with the 2023 felony case.
Christopher Siegel also must finish serving three more years of probation from a 2021 felony DWI case, Judge David Chamberlain ordered in the sentence handed down in Clay County Circuit Court. Siegel had violated his probation in that case multiple times.
The eight years of probation are to be served consecutively.
Siegel, now 45, was charged in December 2023 with aggravated DWI, a class D felony that carries a maximum penalty of seven years in prison and a $10,000 fine. His sentence on Tuesday was the result of a March 11 plea agreement with the Clay County Prosecutor’s Office.
Chamberlain sentenced Siegel to five years in the Missouri Department of Corrections, then suspended execution of the sentence and gave him five years of probation and 60 days of shock incarceration.
The judge told Siegel he was surprised that his attorney, Anthony Bologna, was able to negotiate such a lenient plea deal. He said it was “very unusual” for him to give probation under such circumstances.
“It won’t happen again,” Chamberlain said.
He ordered the 60 days of shock incarceration to begin Tuesday. When the sentencing was over, Siegel put his hands behind his back, a sheriff’s deputy handcuffed him and he exited through a back door of the courtroom.
Liberty police arrested Siegel on May 13, 2023, after getting a report about a silver Ford F-150 pickup with Missouri plates speeding along Kansas Street “with no tires on the passenger side of the vehicle.”
An officer dispatched to the area that evening found Siegel near the pickup in a parking lot at The Landing, a popular restaurant and pub in Liberty, according to the probable cause statement.
The resulting felony DWI charge was his fourth case of driving while intoxicated since 2016, court records indicate. All four incidents occurred when he was employed by the Kansas City Fire Department, and employment records show he continued to work for KCFD for more than 16 months after the 2023 arrest.
Information the city provided in response to a Missouri Sunshine Law request shows that Siegel was employed by KCFD from Jan. 6, 2004, to Oct. 1, 2024. His 2024 captain’s salary was $110,656. The department would not disclose why he left, saying employee terminations are closed under the open records law.
Siegel was among several Kansas City firefighters who remained on the employee rolls despite being convicted of serious crimes.
BEHIND THE STORY
MOREFor the past several months, The Star has been rolling out an ongoing project revealing how KCFD firefighters with criminal records — including violent offenses — have remained on the job, often shielded from serious discipline by a powerful labor union.
To streamline the reporting process and provide a better picture of how widespread the issue might be, The Star built a custom AI tool that automatically searched public court records for hundreds of names of current and former Kansas City Fire Department employees. It flagged matches with criminal cases and provided links to the case numbers.
Reporters could then look up the cases and verify that the individuals worked for KCFD. The tool saved reporters an enormous amount of time compared to using only traditional search methods.
Among the stories that were developed as a result:
–A firefighter charged with sodomy and rape in 2023 who then pleaded guilty to harassment and was sentenced to three years’ probation.
–A KCFD captain who remained on the job for more than a year after being arrested a fourth time for drunken driving.
–A former longtime Kansas City firefighter who assaulted a fellow firefighter at Station 27, 6600 E. Truman Road, last year in an incident that co-workers said ended when they pulled him off the victim.
–A fire captain facing charges of first-degree harassment and assault for allegedly striking a fellow firefighter forcefully in the rectum, causing severe pain that required medical treatment.
It’s important to note that AI didn’t write a single word of these stories. That was the work of the reporters. But what it did was help us take a broad idea and quickly gather evidence to support it. And that process allowed the journalists to focus on deeper, more human reporting.
Readers should watch for more stories from this project in the coming weeks.
The Star reported in May about several such cases, including a firefighter charged with sodomy and rape in 2023 who then pleaded guilty to harassment and was sentenced to three years’ probation.
Another firefighter was charged in 2024 with two felonies — first-degree harassment and first-degree property damage — for allegedly urinating on a female co-worker’s personal and professional belongings. He had remained on the job after allegedly body slamming a woman to the pavement and punching her repeatedly during a road rage incident in 2019. He pleaded guilty in 2022 to second-degree assault and leaving the scene of an accident and was sentenced to four years of probation and 30 days of shock incarceration. His 2024 case is ongoing.
And firefighter Dominic Biscari pleaded guilty in 2023 to three counts of involuntary manslaughter involving a deadly 2021 crash in Westport and was sentenced to three years of probation. Soon after that, the fire department announced its intention to fire him and suspended him without pay pending an internal investigation.
The International Association of Fire Fighters Local 42 filed a grievance to block Biscari’s termination, and an arbitrator ruled in Biscari’s favor in March 2024, saying he deserved no more than a three-day unpaid suspension for the fatal crash and should get his job back, along with back pay. The city appealed the ruling, and the issue is pending in Jackson County Circuit Court.
A recent court filing in that case showed that in testimony to the arbitrator, Local 42 cited examples of other Kansas City firefighters who had been involved in serious crimes and deadly crashes over the years but were not disciplined by the city to the same extent as Biscari.
Those examples included a federal drug sting case, a felony assault conviction, crashes resulting in fatalities and the death of a child struck by a fire truck.
Details of arrests
When Liberty police located Siegel near his pickup in May 2023, he was off balance and stumbling and said he had driven into a curb, according to the probable cause statement.
Siegel initially denied drinking alcohol, but then told police “he had drank ‘a little bit,’” the document said. When asked to perform a field sobriety test, it said, “he failed to follow directions and made a couple of spontaneous utterances; ‘I’m going to prison anyways so it doesn’t matter’ and ‘because I have DWIs anyway.’”
At the Liberty police station, the document said, Siegel refused to answer questions or provide a breath sample. Police obtained a search warrant for a blood draw, and the toxicology report showed he had a blood alcohol concentration of .179, more than twice the legal limit.
He was charged Dec. 1, 2023, with DWI. Court records show Siegel previously was found guilty of DWI for incidents that occurred on March 14, 2016, in Jackson County; May 21, 2016, in Clay County; and Sept. 13, 2021, in Clay County.
The 2016 cases — which occurred just 68 days apart — were charged as misdemeanors, and the 2021 case was a class E felony. Siegel received probation in two of the cases and a 30-day jail sentence in the other.
Court documents show that in the March 14, 2016, case, Kansas City police were sent to Raytown Road and Byrams Ford Road on a report of a vehicle that had crashed into a pole. When officers arrived, they found Siegel lying in the road beside a 2012 GMC Sierra pickup registered in his name.
An investigation found that the truck was headed west when it left the road and hit two utility poles, then ended up back on the road, where it became disabled, according to the probable cause statement. Siegel was taken to a hospital and was listed in stable condition.
An officer contacted Siegel there, the statement said, and noted that his eyes were glassy and bloodshot and his speech was slurred. Siegel denied being involved in a crash and refused to provide a blood sample, it said. Data from his pickup showed that it was going 73 mph 2 ½ seconds before the crash. The speed limit in that area was 40 mph.
When a detective interviewed Siegel three days after the crash, he said he was headed west on Raytown Road when a white car pulled out in front of him and he swerved to miss it, losing control and leaving the roadway, according to the probable cause statement. He denied being impaired when the crash occurred.
Siegel’s blood toxicology results, which police obtained through a subpoena, showed a blood alcohol concentration of .301, nearly four times the legal limit, the document said.
‘You know I’m a fire captain’
In the May 21, 2016, case, Kansas City police were sent to a Clay County home on an active disturbance call. When they arrived, the probable cause statement said, Siegel’s father-in-law said Siegel had driven to his home, yelled at him and shoved him in the chest.
Siegel was “very agitated and belligerent,” the document said, and the officer “immediately smelled a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage and a chemical odor coming from Siegel’s breath.” It said that Siegel “continued to be belligerent and had to be detained in handcuffs to prevent further confrontation.”
Siegel was arrested and taken to the Shoal Creek Detention Unit, the document said. He had trouble balancing, and his speech was slurred and confused.
“Siegel was escorted and seated in a chair next to the breath instrument,” the probable cause statement said. “Siegel first stated, ‘You know I’m a Fire Captain.’”
When police requested that he submit to a breath test, the statement said, “Siegel stated, ‘No, because I haven’t been drinking.’”
A computer check revealed that Siegel’s Missouri driver’s license had been revoked and that he had “multiple prior alcohol contacts,” it said.
“I believe Siegel poses a danger to the community or to any other person because he continued to operate a motor vehicle while under the influence of an intoxicating substance,” wrote the detective who signed the statement.
In the 2021 DWI case, Siegel was indicted by a grand jury.
According to the indictment, Siegel was “a persistent offender” who operated a motor vehicle on Sept. 13, 2021, at (Missouri) Highway 152 and North Church Road in Clay County while under the influence of alcohol.
Siegel was still on probation for that case when he was charged in the Liberty incident in 2023.
Court records show that Siegel repeatedly violated probation in his cases. In February 2024, two days after one violation was filed, his ex-wife wrote to the court, pleading with the judge to impose the maximum sentence.
The previous sentences had not been harsh enough, she said, and he continued to drive under the influence, “putting my children and the rest of society at risk.”
This story was originally published October 14, 2025 at 4:47 PM.
