On Monday morning, the ex-captain of a fire department plagued by court appearances and scandal was supposed to appear in the courtroom of Magisterial District Judge Martin Smith.
However, at 10 a.m., Steven Bartholomew, 55, failed to appear for his preliminary hearing. Smith conducted the hearing in his absence.
According to investigators, Bartholomew operated firetrucks for Paxtang Fire Company No. 1 approximately ten times between January and November of 2024. However, he did so without a legal driver’s license and with falsified credentials, which led to the filing of criminal charges against him in December of last year.
In 2016, Bartholomew’s driver’s license from Pennsylvania expired. Additionally, when he joined the Paxtang Fire Company as a captain, he informed them that his Arkansas license, which had expired in 2020, had expired in 2024.
However, Bartholomew needed more than just a current driver’s license to operate a fire vehicle. When he was chosen to be a captain, he also gave the Paxtang Fire Company his firefighter certificates.
However, authorities claim that the documents he gave to the fire department were fake. Police were informed by the University of Maryland Fire and Rescue Institute, which purportedly certified Bartholomew to operate fire engines, that Bartholomew had never received their certification and that his records were fraudulent.
According to a press release from the police, he irresponsibly put the people he was tasked with protecting in jeopardy by holding this position under the false premise of advanced training and experience.
To send seven misdemeanor charges of forgery, ten charges of reckless endangerment of another person, and ten summary offense charges of driving without a license to Dauphin County Court for prosecution by the Dauphin County District Attorney’s Office, Magisterial District Judge Michael Smith determined that there was sufficient probable cause.
In Bartholomew’s absence, no lawyer showed up to represent him at his hearing.
The continual back and forth between the Paxtang Borough and the Paxtang Fire Company is a backdrop to Bartholomew’s arrest. In August 2022, the borough decided to decertify the fire company and switch to Swatara Township as its main supplier.
Following two years of a cold war, Paxtang officials ordered firefighters to leave the facility and threatened to imprison those who continued to respond to emergencies while posing as public servants.
A Dauphin County jury decided last week that the Paxtang Fire Company may keep using its regular location in the Paxtang Borough building and was not required to pay any rent or utilities.
According to the ruling, Paxtang Fire Company is allowed to continue using the borough’s space at no cost to itself, even if it isn’t offering any fire services to borough residents, even while Paxtang Borough is giving public money to Swatara Township to provide fire protection services.
Crime and court news