No quick action on EMS chief

By PHYLLIS ZORN

Staff writer

County commissioners apparently have decided to wait for possible action by a state licensing board before considering how to respond to reports of ambulance director Curt Hasart’s past legal problems.

Although the county’s advertisement seeking an ambulance director specified a background check was required, commissioners admitted two weeks ago that no background check had been done on Hasart.

He turns out to have been charged with assault and battery in Wellington and was arrested for assault, interference with law enforcement, and resisting arrest in South Dakota, when he worked there.

The South Dakota incidents led to a consent agreement Oct. 19, 2012, with the South Dakota Board of Medical and Osteopathic Examiners, with a reprimand reported to national data banks “and all other entities deemed necessary.”

It ultimately cost Hasart his South Dakota license in 2016.

Hasart entered into a one-year diversion agreement in the Wellington charges. Diversion agreements suspend criminal charges. If a suspect complies with all laws, at the end of the diversion, charges are dismissed.

But to receive a diversion, the suspect must sign a document admitting the facts of the case.

In Hasart’s stipulation to the Wellington charges, he admitted that on April 8, 2015, he “did knowingly cause physical contact with Sam Pacino within Wellington done in a rude, insulting, or angry manner by angrily pushing Pacino during an argument.”

“This was not done in self-defense” the stipulation states, “and Hasart also yelled at Pacino during this altercation, which was alarming to other persons present.”

Hasart signed the diversion agreement July 28, 2015.

He is under investigation by the Kansas Board of Emergency Medical Services for not being truthful about his South Dakota arrest when he applied for a Kansas license.

The South Dakota arrests were before Hasart applied for temporary certification as a paramedic in Kansas.

The board required applicants to disclose any actions against their license, felony convictions, or pending criminal cases, but Hasart did not, according to Joe House, executive director of board.

Unaware of Hasart’s arrests, the board granted a temporary certification Dec. 9, 2011, allowing him to work under supervision of another paramedic.

He worked for Wellington Fire and EMS from Dec. 5, 2011, to Oct. 6, 2017.

The soonest the state board could take action would be August.