From the Post-Tribune: Former Hobart (Ind.) Fire Chief Bill McCorkle failed to follow proper protocol and policies set by the city when he sold exercise equipment for cash and traded an old fire truck for computers without a paper trail and without city officials’ knowledge, but there is no evidence he did anything criminal, according to results of a Hobart police investigation.

However, Lake County Prosecutor Bernard Carter, whose office would file any criminal charges in the matter, said Wednesday his investigator assigned to the case believes the matter should also go before the State Board of Accounts. Carter also said the investigator had not had a chance to review the Hobart police department’s findings as of Wednesday afternoon so he could not say whether there would be any criminal charges.

Hobart officials called for a police investigation into three separate matters involving the fire department under McCorkle’s reign as chief the early part of the 2000s. The investigation found that McCorkle, who resigned after stories of his transactions were reported in the Post-Tribune, sold exercise equipment bought with federal funds to firefighters and asked for cash as payment, and traded an old firetruck to a former firefighter in exchange for four Dell computers. Read the entire article here.