Katy Fire Chief indicted for allegedly diverting Valium from ambulances to give to relative

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Used to showing courage under fire, the chief of the Katy Fire Department is now in a different kind of hot seat. The veteran fire fighter now faces felony charges for allegedly stealing drugs from an ambulance, then fabricating a memo to cover it all up.

As chief he had access to the drugs on the KFD ambulances, but the relative he allegedly injected with them was never a patient and never called 911. She allegedly got them from the chief for her back pain.

Marc Jordan has been the Katy Fire Chief for more than 10 years.

"Marc was a very respected chief. They have to be taking this like a kick to the gut," said former Katy FD chaplain Robert Crutchfield.

But Tuesday morning we found Jordan walking out of the Harris County Grand Jury. Jordan was indicted for allegedly taking vials of Valium and injecting them in to his cousin's ex-wife earlier this year. And when he was about to get caught, the grand jury says Jordan allegedly lied about it.

In a letter attached to the indictment, Jordan writes, "I inadvertently dropped a box of Diazapam. In an effort to catch the box I jammed the box between my leg and the refrigerator stand breaking the carpujet cartridges. I disposed the broken cartridges."

But the Harris County District Attorney's Office says that's not true.

The chief wasn't talking to us Tuesday, but his lawyer was. The lawyer tells us the chief gave her the drugs days before life-saving back surgery.

"I think he regrets some of the steps that he took and decisions he made after the fact. He has absolutely no regret for coming to the aid of Ms. Jordan and as the surgeon who operated on her said, potentially saving her life," said defense attorney Chip Lewis.

The seven vials of Valium turned up missing after the DEA asked questions about them. That's when Jordan allegedly wrote the letter about destroying the drugs.

When we asked Crutchfield if this seemed like a violation of public trust, he replied, "If true, it certainly would be."

The chief's lawyer says Jordan did discuss the problem with the fire department's medical director, but that doctor never wrote a prescription either. The chief's attorney says he expects this to go to trial.

Jordan, 58, is charged with diversion of a controlled substance and tampering with a governmental record.

If convicted, the chief could lose his job and face years in prison.
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