Battalion chief accused of running gambling operation on-the-clock in South San Francisco. A firefighter's 30k debt brought investigation.

A friend of mine emailed me the link to this story early this morning as I was in a cab riding through South San Francisco, having just landed at nearby San Francisco International for the start of a three week family adventure (more on that later). But it appears I am a little late to cover it or get in on the action.

MercuryNews.com is reporting former South San Francisco Battalion Chief James Selvitella was arraigned yesterday and charged with being part of a sports betting operation that  handled hundreds of thousands of dollars. Selvitella was fired in 2008. Everything unravled and an investigation began after the Chief Phil White discovered a firefighter was $30,000 in debt to Chief Selvitella. Here’s more from Joshua Melvin of the San Meteo County Times:

Selvitella, who also owns Petaluma-based sports bar Beyond the Glory, solicited wagers from his fellow firefighters and would collect the cash from and drop off the winnings to gamblers, Wagstaffe said. He would use his battalion chief’s phone — on average nearly three times a shift — to call in the bets, according to court records. He also used city computers to research bets and follow games, and to track wagers.

Authorities believe Selvitella and the other men were part of a larger national sports wagering syndicate and that the local operation has been taking bets since about 2006.

City officials talked to the gambling firefighter and he confirmed what was happening. Not long after that, the South San Francisco police began investigating and later the California Department of Justice got involved, court records show.

Police quickly realized fire department phones had been used hundreds of times to call a toll-free number that investigators later realized was how Selvitella was making the wagers, according to court records.

Selvitella was eventually brought before the personnel board for a hearing and fired, effective February 2008, court records show.