By sentencing Indian River County Fire-Rescue’s former second in command Brian Burkeen to 12 years in prison plus 18 years probation, Circuit Court Judge Dan Vaughn broadcast loud and clear to anyone who might think about ripping off the taxpayers: If you do it, you will suffer major consequences for the rest of your life.
Burkeen, a 30-year county employee and long-time Fellsmere resident, must also make more than $300,000 in restitution for the tire-theft scheme he carried on for the five years preceding his retirement in 2018. Burkeen pleaded no contest in March just before his trial was to begin.
He could have been sentenced to up to 30 years in prison, but Assistant Public Defender Michelle Rhodeback petitioned for only four years. Assistant State Attorney Lev Evans had asked for Burkeen to get 20 years in prison plus five years probation. Rhodeback called the sentence excessive.
Even though the sentence was lower than he wanted, Evans said he’s satisfied that Burkeen will be well in his 80s when he’s finally out and off probation.
“Nobody wants to serve 12 years hard time in prison, especially not at that age,” Evans said of the 57-year-old Burkeen. “On top of that, he lost his pension from the county, so he’s losing something like $60,000 a year every year that he’s alive.”
Burkeen’s April sentencing was postponed twice – once due to a suspension of court proceedings during the COVID-19 shutdown, and again in June when Burkeen’s wife Ginger tested positive for the virus.
Speaking on behalf of more than 150,000 taxpayer victims was County Administrator Jason Brown. After the sentencing, Brown said. “I believe that the sentence is an appropriate punishment for Mr. Burkeen’s crimes against all taxpayers of Indian River County. Justice was served for the taxpayers and Indian River County as a whole.”
Brown thanked the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office, the State Attorney’s staff and the Clerk of the Court for investigating and prosecuting the case.
“Mr. Burkeen had a great deal of public trust placed in him due to his position as the Assistant Fire Chief and he violated that trust,” Brown said. “He will now pay the price for his crimes. I hope that this sentence let’s everyone know that if you steal from the public, you will get caught, you will get prosecuted and you will get punished accordingly.”
Since Burkeen’s massive theft scheme was discovered in 2018, the county has strengthened its internal accounting controls. County Budget Director Kristin Daniels said an in-depth audit was conducted and policies revamped across every county department, not just emergency services. Tire purchases are now tracked separately from other fleet maintenance costs, and quarterly comparisons are made with prior years’ expenses so any irregularities can be flagged right away.
“In addition, for any tire purchases made, the requesting department is now required to submit the fleet number of the vehicle for which the tires are being purchased, along with their respective tire sizes,” Daniels said.
Court documents show that most of the tires Burkeen was fraudulently ordering, picking up from the Goodyear dealer and selling to people he knew or connected with on social media did not even fit the county’s fire department fleet vehicles.
“An electronic inventory system has been purchased by Emergency Services to tighten inventory controls on all items purchased for Emergency Services fleet. This inventory system provides a complete tracking of each fleet related item purchased, along with the associated fleet number of the receiving asset,” Daniels said. “In addition, all passenger vehicle tire replacement is now completed in-house by the County Fleet division.”
On top of what he stole, Burkeen got a bit more from taxpayers in the form of expert testimony at his sentencing. Evans said he has no idea how much the price tag will be for the worker’s compensation attorney who tried to get Burkeen a lighter sentence due to alleged mental health problems, but the use of expert testimony in criminal trial law has extended beyond capital cases and violent offenses to property crimes like Burkeen’s theft of more than 1,400 tires.
“It’s become the industry standard,” Evans said. “Private defense attorneys call in these experts, so I guess the public defender feels like they have to use them as well or they’ll be accused of not doing their job.”
Burkeen claims he developed serious memory issues after he crashed his pickup truck into a tree while out on bail awaiting trial.
After sentencing, he was taken to the Indian River County Jail where he awaits transfer to one of Florida’s state prisons.
Staff Writer Nick Samuel contributed to this report