Kansas City fire captain remained on job despite four DWI arrests, records show
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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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Liberty Police got the bizarre call on May 13, 2023.
A silver Ford F-150 pickup with Missouri plates had been speeding along Kansas Street “with no tires on the passenger side of the vehicle,” the report said.
An officer dispatched to the area at 6:17 p.m. found the pickup in a parking lot at The Landing, a popular restaurant and pub in Liberty. Nearby was the alleged driver — Christopher R. Siegel, a captain with the Kansas City Fire Department.
The resulting felony DWI charge would become his fourth case of driving while intoxicated since 2016, court records show. All four incidents occurred when he was employed by KCFD.
Safety advocates and some legal experts say the issue is troubling.
“If you have felonies — whether (they occurred) on the job or not — in which the basis of the felony is your inability to follow basic safety rules, then how would we allow that employee to be employed in a safety-sensitive position?” said Tim Dollar, a Kansas City attorney who represented the family of a man who died when a fire truck plowed into a car in an intersection in Westport in 2021, killing three.
“And captain of a fire department is a safety-sensitive position.”
Siegel, a 20-year fire department veteran whose employment with KCFD continued for more than 16 months after his most recent arrest, is another example of Kansas City firefighters who remained on the employee rolls despite being convicted of serious crimes.
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.
And firefighter Dominic Biscari pleaded guilty in 2023 to three counts of involuntary manslaughter involving the deadly 2021 crash in Westport. His plea agreement with prosecutors allowed him to be sentenced to three years of probation.
When the fire department announced its intention to fire him, the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 42 filed a grievance to block Biscari’s termination. An arbitrator ruled in Biscari’s favor in March 2024, saying he deserved no more than a three-day unpaid suspension for causing the fatal crash.
In testimony to the arbitrator, the union cited examples of other Kansas City firefighters who were involved in vehicle crashes but were not disciplined by the city to the same extent as Biscari. The union also gave examples of employees who had been convicted of serious felonies and were not disciplined.
Those examples were redacted by Local 42, but used to support the arbitrator’s finding that Biscari was not disciplined in the same manner as other employees who faced similar charges. And KCFD successfully fought in court to keep secret the documents that spelled out which firefighters the union was referring to.
The cases illustrate the union’s influence when it comes to protecting its own, said Erin Vernon, a partner at Bratcher Gockel Law, LC, whose firm represents clients with claims against the city and the fire department.
“Generally, I think unions are great for American workers, and I have great respect for so much of what they accomplish for their members,” she said.
But where unions often fall short, Vernon said in an email to The Star, “is in their dogged defense of members who have violated not only an employer’s policy but also the law.”
“Preserving the employment of lawbreakers and repeat offenders tarnishes the reputations of all members, erodes the public’s trust, and endangers the safety of coworkers and the public,” she said. “The City’s foremost duty is to protect and ensure the safety of the public.
“I believe the City should spend significantly more time fulfilling that duty to the public rather than being influenced by the Union’s power, position on an issue, or campaign contributions. City employees who repeatedly endanger the public should not be able to maintain their public safety position.”
Siegel’s attorney did not respond to requests for comment on his DWI cases, and Siegel could not be reached for comment. Battalion Chief Michael Hopkins, a Kansas City Fire Department spokesman, said Siegel was no longer employed by KCFD and referred other questions to city spokesperson Sherae Honeycutt.
Honeycutt told The Star that “the City cannot comment on legal matters.”
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.
Tabitha Perkins, Missouri’s state executive director for Mothers Against Drunk Driving, said a person with four DWI convictions must face consequences for those actions.
“Regardless of what position you hold with your career, or regardless of what status that you might have, driving while impaired is illegal,” she said. “It takes the innocent lives of so many, and we don’t care who you are, we want the law to hold you accountable, and we would like justice to be served in every case where there’s an impaired driving arrest made.”
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 May 2023 arrest
When the Liberty police officer located Siegel on that May 2023 evening, Siegel told the officer that he owned the pickup and “he had ran into a curb at four-thirty,” according to the probable cause statement filed with the charging documents.
Siegel stumbled toward his pickup, it said, and the officer put his hand on Siegel’s chest to prevent him from falling over.
“Mr. Siegel put his left hand on his truck to steady himself and keep him from swaying,” the document said. “Mr. Siegel said he was by himself and initially denied drinking alcohol, but then stated he had drank ‘a little bit.’”
Siegel’s eyes were bloodshot, he could not keep his balance, his speech was slurred and the officer “could smell the odor of an intoxicating beverage coming from Mr. Siegel,” the statement 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.’”
Siegel was taken into custody and at the Liberty police station refused to answer questions or provide a breath sample, the document said. Police obtained a search warrant for a blood draw, and the toxicology report that came back on July 14, 2023, showed he had a blood alcohol content of .179, more than twice the legal limit.
He was charged Dec. 1, 2023, with DWI. The charging document said that as an “aggravated offender,” he would be required to serve 60 days’ incarceration before being eligible for probation or parole.
Siegel, 45, pleaded guilty on March 11, 2025, and is scheduled to be sentenced next month in Clay County Circuit Court.
The DWI charge is a class D felony that carries a maximum penalty of seven years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
But according to the plea agreement Siegel signed on March 11, he will get five years of probation and 60 days of shock incarceration. He also will be required to attend a Substance Awareness Traffic Offender Program and submit to at least one year of electronic alcohol monitoring.
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 third case was a felony. Siegel received probation in two of the cases and a 30-day jail sentence in the other.
In the 2021 case, Siegel was indicted by a grand jury on Oct. 6 of that year. Court records show he pleaded guilty to the charge — DWI-Persistent, Class E Felony — on April 6, 2022. The judge sentenced him to three years in prison, then suspended execution of the sentence and placed him on five years’ probation.
Siegel also was ordered to serve 60 days of community service, submit to 120 days of electronic alcohol monitoring and attend a Substance Awareness Traffic Offender Program and Victim Impact Panel classes.
Repeatedly violated probation
An Aug. 24, 2022, court entry said Siegel violated his probation. At a Sept. 6, 2022, hearing, the judge continued his probation and ordered him to wear a continuous monitoring device that detects alcohol through the skin at regular intervals. The judge also ordered that an ignition interlock be installed on any vehicle Siegel owned, leased or drove.
On Dec. 19, 2022, Siegel admitted to another probation violation, court documents show. The judge then added a new condition to Siegel’s probation: he was not to enter any establishment where alcohol was served.
While Siegel was still on probation in that case, he was arrested for the 2023 incident in Liberty. And on Feb. 20, 2024, another probation violation was filed and the judge suspended his probation.
Two days later, Siegel’s ex-wife wrote a letter to the court, asking the judge to hand down a tougher sentence.
“I feel his past sentences have not been harsh enough, as he continues to commit these crimes of driving under the influence, therefore putting my children and the rest of society at risk,” she wrote in the Feb. 22, 2024, letter.
“I am pleading for you to impose the maximum sentence of incarceration as allowed by law. It is very evident that he has no regard for the law, and having known him for 20 years, I know he is (sadly) incapable of change. I have a long and tumultuous history with Mr. Siegel, and I know he will continue to disregard the laws set for society; as you can see, probation, car breathalyzers, SCRAM bracelets, rehab, etc. are not enough to deter him from his illegal and dangerous behavior.
“Since he is a KCFD captain, he is well protected by that union and always seems to get away with a light sentence. I am not sure if a harsher sentence, like multiple years in jail, will help him, but I do know his past sentences have not changed his behavior.”
Dan Heizman, president of Local 42, responded Tuesday night to The Star’s requests for comment, saying he “would need to further review the specifics to make an accurate and informed comment.”
Federal court documents show that Siegel filed for bankruptcy in 2017. The filing listed his occupation as a firefighter for the City of Kansas City and said he earned $6,496 per month.
The document also contained a reference to his driver’s license.
“Debtor’s drivers license has been suspended and he has been unable to work overtime recently,” it said. “Debtor anticipates beginning to work overtime again, if necessary, when his drivers license is no longer suspended.”
This story was originally published July 23, 2025 at 5:30 AM.
