ST. JOHN | For almost three years, Vince Casboni has been fighting to clear his family name.
It finally is.
In 2005, members of the St. John Volunteer Fire Department voted to remove him for allegedly failing to follow orders twice during a sixth-month period.
Casboni fought that vote and sued. Under a settlement reached at the end of 2007, all charges were dismissed. The Fire Department also agreed to accept Casboni's voluntary resignation and clear his record of all charges.
He is now an honorary member of the department and entitled to all the benefits and privileges associated with that status, according to the settlement. Casboni did not comment on a monetary portion of the settlement.
What he wanted most was his name cleared, he said.
Casboni, who joined the St. John department in 1976, said he and his brothers, Anthony and Matthew Casboni, were well-known in local fire departments and throughout St. John. They logged hundreds of hours of training and responded to thousands of fire calls, Vince Casboni said.
"Any type of fire, the Casbonis were always there," he said.
Matthew Casboni, Vince's twin, died at a St. John structure fire in 1998. Vince and Anthony remained with the department. Both won awards for their service.
So when a letter arrived in January 2005 stating that Vince Casboni was being brought up on charges, he was angry. He was accused of ignoring a command to stand by a fire engine at the scene of a fire a few weeks earlier, but Casboni said he didn't hear that order.
Anthony Casboni, who resigned from the department in 2005, contends that a new clique formed in the department and wanted the brothers gone.
Vince Casboni said he has since been approached about the possibility of a memorial being erected in his brother's honor, but after all he's been through, he's not interested.
"When they did this to Vince, they did this to all three of us," Anthony Casboni said.
St. John Fire Chief Fred Willman declined to comment on the settlement, as did Paul T. Fulkerson, an attorney representing the Fire Department's insurance company, which was handling the lawsuit.
