It was a windstorm that began to swirl rumors about the use of state grant money by a former Owen County volunteer fire chief, said Indiana state Rep. Vern Tincher, D-Riley.

Eyebrows were raised about the materials used in the addition to the Wayne-Harrison-Montgomery Fire Station in Gosport after a windstorm dismantled part of the new roof, Tincher said.

The suspicions led to a yearlong investigation, and now former Chief Michael C. Burke faces 11 felony charges alleging he misused much of the $50,000 in Build Indiana Fund money intended for a new firehouse addition.

Burke was arrested Friday on six counts of forgery, two counts of theft and three counts of unlawfully certifying for state funds. He faces up to 12 years in prison if convicted on all counts, Owen County Prosecutor Allan Fountain said.

During an initial court hearing Monday, an innocent plea was entered for Burke and he was released on bond, Fountain said. A pretrial conference was set for Oct. 29.

According to a probable-cause affidavit signed by Indiana State Police Sgt. Charles Cohen, Burke lied to the state to get nearly $50,000 in state grants, turned in fake receipts from companies, used the money for shoddy construction work and diverted taxpayer money for his own use.

"He seemed to spend it on everything other than what the grant was written for," Fountain said.

Tincher said he believes Burke used about half of the money on the firehouse and some on fire equipment.

"It wasn't all siphoned away,But some of the money is still unaccounted for" Tincher said

In retrospect, Tincher said, it would have been difficult for the state to detect a problem with Burke's expenditures, because he turned in receipts that reflected an appropriate use of the grant money.

"You have no way of knowing they were being fraudulent with those receipts," Tincher said.

He added that no one from the state budget agency had complained that the money was being used for the wrong purpose.