The fire captain accused of threatening co-workers and stealing from his own department for years could face up to 5 years in prison if convicted on four felony charges filed today by the Contra Costa County District Attorney.
Fire captain Jon Wilmot, 51, retired shortly after being arrested in December on second degree burglary and grand theft charges.
“We’re treating it like any other case. He is not going to get any special treatment and unfortunately he’s violated the public trust,” said DA Mark Peterson.
Peterson filed the following felony charges: embezzlement, receiving stolen goods, possession of an assault weapon and commercial burglary of fire gear valued up to $35,000.
There are also new developments involving the workplace violence restraining order against Wilmot.
The CCCFPD’s lawyers are negotiating with Wilmot’s lawyers to settle the restraining order out of court. Both attorneys declined to comment on why. Wilmot spent 27 years with the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District, but court documents show during several of those years, Wilmot allegedly harassed co-workers, stole from the department, and threatened citizens he was sworn to protect.
Investigators said they used a surveillance camera – disguised as a utility box – to capture images of Wilmot removing bags full of tools and supplies from a Contra Costa fire station.
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In the workplace violence restraining order obtained exclusively by the NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit, the battalion chief said Wilmot wrote a co-worker’s name on a bullet and gave it to him.
He said Wilmot also stole another firefighter’s uniform in retaliation when that firefighter reported Wilmot for having pornography on his computer at work. The chief also cites police reports showing Wilmot threatened a man with a hammer over a parking spot and threatened to rape and decapitate a woman after she called him by mistake.
Police said they found 53 guns and thousands of rounds of ammo in Wilmot’s three homes. “I don’t think it’s inaccurate to say he had some difficulties with hoarding so there was lots of property in each one of these homes. We had to go through a lot of property just to see what there, to see what was stolen. There were many weapons found so it took some time to determine if these weapons were possessed legally, illegally, registered or not,” said Peterson when asked why it took several months to file charges after the initial search warrants were executed in December of 2012.
