Another Kansas City firefighter with multiple DWIs remains on the job
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Kansas City firefighter with prior DWI got judge-approved work release.
- Judge granted the work release after prosecutors did not oppose, enabling continued duty.
- Multiple KCFD firefighters have stayed on payroll despite DWI convictions.
READ MORE
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.
Expand All
Antonino Giarraputo was hired by the Kansas City Fire Department on March 11, 2024. Seven months later, he was cited in Platte County for driving while intoxicated.
Court records show it wasn’t his first DWI.
When he pleaded guilty in August and was sentenced to two years of probation and 10 days of “shock time” in the Platte County Detention Center, Giarraputo asked the judge to grant him work release during those 10 days so he could keep his firefighter job.
His motion requesting work release said that “if Defendant were ordered to serve his Shock Time without the allowance for work release, this would result in the possibility of Defendant losing his job and could put his fellow employees’ safety in jeopardy.”
The motion was granted.
KCFD Battalion Chief Michael Hopkins, a department spokesperson, confirmed Monday that Giarraputo, 22, is still employed as a firefighter but did not respond to further questions about the case. Fire department records obtained through a Missouri Sunshine Law request show his 2025 salary as $52,509.
Giarraputo could not be reached for comment on the case. His attorney, Kevin Regan, did not respond to requests for comment.
Giarraputo is among multiple firefighters who remained on the KCPD 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 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.
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 Route 152. A Platte County deputy had to use stop sticks to bring his SUV to a halt.
Van Horn was placed on two years of probation and continues to work for KCFD.
BEHIND THE STORY
MOREHow we reported the KCFD project
For 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 can watch for more stories from this project in the coming weeks.
A prior offender
Giarraputo received the DWI citation at 1:30 a.m. on Oct. 20, 2024, while driving a 2016 Ford F-150 pickup in Platte County. He was charged the following month with a class A misdemeanor, which carries a maximum penalty of one year in jail and a $2,000 fine. According to the charging document, he was a prior offender.
He also was charged with two class C misdemeanors in connection with the incident — failing to signal or give a proper signal when stopping or turning, and failing to drive on the right half of the roadway; and one class B misdemeanor — failing to register a motor vehicle.
Giarraputo pleaded guilty to all charges in Platte County Circuit Court on Aug. 25, although the pleas on the two class C misdemeanors were amended to the charge of failure to equip a vehicle with proper headlamps, an infraction.
Platte County Circuit Court Judge Amy Ashelford sentenced Giarraputo to 365 days in jail, then suspended imposition of 355 days of the sentence and placed him on two years’ probation with 10 days of shock incarceration in the Platte County jail. The judge also ordered Giarraputo to attend a Substance Awareness Traffic Offender Program, have an ignition interlock device with a camera and GPS installed on his car and perform 40 hours of community service.
The request for work release was filed days before his sentencing. Giarraputo’s motion said his KCFD job required him to work 24 hours on duty with 48 hours off between shifts. While on duty, it said, he wasn’t allowed to leave the premises for any reason unrelated to his employment.
In her order granting the work release, Ashelford said the request was unopposed by prosecutors. Though the motion did not say where Giarraputo worked, the judge’s order gave the address as 5200 N. Oak Trafficway in Kansas City — the site of Fire Station 40.
Giarraputo has two previous cases on his record. One was a speeding ticket issued in Kansas City in May 2024 for driving 75 mph in a 60 mph zone. He pleaded guilty in July 2024 to an amended charge of defective equipment and was sentenced to a $172.50 fine and $52.50 court costs.
The other case involved the prior DWI charge, filed in Platte County in 2022. Court records show he pleaded guilty on Aug. 15, 2022, to “failure to register motor vehicle,” a class B misdemeanor, and was sentenced to a $100 fine plus court costs. No details are publicly available, however, on the DWI portion of the case.
