Firefighter and church deacon accused of embezzlement in Oklahoma

"We were hurt, disappointed; I don't know, a lot of emotions; mad," Glen Harvey said of a fellow church deacon. There are big emotions in the tight-knit town of Lookeba-Sickles.

Lawmen say this community was betrayed by one of its own when a church deacon and volunteer firefighter admitted to embezzling nearly $200,000 from the Lookeba-Sickles Volunteer Fire Department and a local church.
"It's hard to imagine how anyone would do that," Harvey said.
Caddo County prosecutors charged 58-year-old James Randall Hutcherson with five felony counts of embezzlement and obtaining cash by fraud. He has confessed to taking nearly $68,000 from the town's volunteer fire department and $124,000 from the Sickles Community Church.
Authorities say he also used three fire trucks for collateral to get personal loans after he had already been caught stealing.
"As best we can tell right now, he just used it to keep up appearances," Caddo County Assistant District Attorney Tyler Lowe said. "Everybody knows everybody, very salt of the earth people. I think they're hurt and rightfully so that, basically, one of their own would do this type of thing."
If convicted Hutcherson could face up to ten years on each felony