Former Maine fire chief pleads to reduced charges in fraud case

A former fire chief for Gouldsboro and Winter Harbor pleaded no contest Monday to two misdemeanor charges to resolve an alleged fraud case .

As a result of the plea, Tatum McLean will have to pay $2,500 in fines and reimbursement costs but will not have to spend time behind bars.

McLean, 52, was alleged to have committed fraud and theft while he oversaw Schoodic EMS, the ambulance service that provides emergency medical care to both towns, when he was Gouldsboro’s fire chief. McLean was accused of “falsely completing and submitting payroll warrants for payment based on medical transport,” according to court documents.

He had been charged with forgery, theft, and aggravated criminal invasion of computer privacy, all of which are felonies. But those charges were dismissed as part of a plea agreement he reached with the Hancock County District Attorney’s Office.

Instead, he pleaded no contest Monday to misdemeanor charges of unsworn falsification and criminal invasion of computer privacy. Justice Harold Stewart accepted the pleas and imposed fines of $500 on each charge and a restitution order of $1,500, payable to the town of Gouldsboro.

Defendants who make no-contest pleas do not admit guilt to their charges, but they still end up with a conviction.

McLean’s defense attorney, Walter McKee, said that McLean has maintained the whole time that he was innocent and that it was another member of the Gouldsboro fire department, who no longer works there, who was responsible.

“Tate’s been clear from the start that he never committed these crimes,” McKee said. “He decided to plead to them to end this case.”

The other department official blamed by McLean was never charged.

“It’s not a great resolution, but it is a good one,” McKee said.

Robert Granger, the Hancock County district attorney, declined to comment on the case.

McLean had served as Gouldsboro’s fire chief from 2015 until he resigned in May 2022, leaving to take a full-time position in Winter Harbor that combined the duties of fire chief and road commissioner. He was then fired by the town of Winter Harbor in September 2023, a couple of weeks after he was criminally charged in the alleged scheme and then placed on leave.

McLean declined to comment Monday on the case or his no contest pleas. But he did say the allegations drove him out of his chosen career of the last 20-plus years.

“I’m done with public safety,” McLean said as he turned and walked away down a courthouse hallway. “They lost another good first responder.”