Investigation paints a picture of deeper culture problems at MCFR

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Posted January 16, 2026 | By Jennifer Hunt Murty
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The grievance filings submitted by two fired Marion County Fire Rescue supervisors argue they were terminated without fair access to evidence — but they also describe a department culture where misconduct was normalized long before the Nov. 16 hazing incident that sparked criminal charges for four and a wave of separations.

The Station 21 case began as a criminal investigation into the alleged hazing of a firefighter, Kayne Stuart, resulting in four MCFR workers being arrested and six others being fired.

Two of the supervisors on duty the night of the incident, Capt. Victor Payette and Lt. Fred Bowers, are seeking full reinstatement, back pay and expungement of their termination records, according to documents filed this week and reviewed by the “Ocala Gazette.”

Their grievances are now outside the fire department and awaiting a decision by County Administrator Mounir Bouyounes. If Bouyounes denies their grievance appeals, the firefighters union and officers indicate they will pursue mediation and binding arbitration.

While the county has framed the terminations as a leadership accountability issue — a failure to report, intervene, or properly manage a serious incident — the grievances reflect an underlying problem bigger than two newly promoted supervisors. The filings describe the department’s environment where hazing and “horseplay” had become so common that multiple employees struggled to recognize when behavior crossed into abuse.

A failure of “due process” and proper investigation methods

The grievances do not dispute that the allegations at Station 21 are serious. But Payette and Bowers contend the county’s response focused on swift punishment rather than a full and fair administrative fact-finding process.

Central to their appeals is the claim that Marion County officials refused to provide them with the witness statements, recordings, and other materials used to justify their firings — even during pre-termination hearings — and instead told their attorneys to file public records requests.

Attorneys Erica Hay, representing Payette, and Jennifer Seymour, representing Bowers, told the “Gazette” they were forced to meet grievance deadlines while still awaiting records needed to understand and defend the allegations.

In his appeal to Bouyounes, Bowers wrote that the county’s refusal to provide key materials before termination denied him timely access to evidence needed to defend himself.

Payette’s grievance similarly argues his due process protections as a public employee— often referred to as “Loudermill rights” — were violated because he was not given a meaningful opportunity to respond to specific accusations with access to the underlying evidence.

A “culture failure,” not just a personnel dispute

Beyond the procedural disputes, the filings outline what the officers describe as a deeper problem: a workplace culture where serious misconduct could be reframed as routine firehouse behavior until it escalated into something undeniable.

In public safety environments, experts often describe this phenomenon as “normalized deviation” — when unsafe behavior becomes accepted as normal because it is repeated, tolerated, or minimized over time.

Payette’s grievance in particular, argues that “normalized deviation” was across the department, not just at Station 21.

The filings point to witness accounts and investigative statements in which some firefighters described behavior as “horseplay,” “typical,” or part of the fire service culture — language that the grievances argue reveals a long-standing tolerance for boundary-crossing conduct.

Internal department reports from September 2022 indicate that Bowers had been the victim of department pranks himself when Chief James Banta’s son in law and another firefighter conspired to prank Bowers with an accusation that he stole $200 in cash. Bowers, the only Black male at the station that day, reported concerns of harassment and nepotism that he claimed “kept being swept under the rug.”

Seymore, Bower’s attorney, indicated she’s still waiting for public records from the county for her investigation into whether or not Bowers was being retaliated against. Bowers was the only Black lieutenant in the department.

The grievances also claim that prior incidents and informal handling of violence at the stations contributed to an environment where employees either did not recognize the severity of what was unfolding or assumed someone else would stop it.

One example attached referenced a violent incident in July 2023 by one firefighter against a probationary firefighter/EMT involving “grabbing him by the throat and pushing him up against the grass truck” after a period of ongoing harassment. The punishment was a written reprimand and two-day suspension without pay, the aggressor was moved to another station and put on probation for year, as well as required to participate in remedial training.

There are no records indicating that incident was reported to law enforcement, nor did department officials hold a press conference about the incident, as occurred after the Nov. 16 incident.

Another example was in 2014, when someone’s hand was stabbed by a lieutenant. Banta, a division chief then, described in his findings the incident as “horseplay” and the incident was an “accident.” Again, law enforcement was not called, and no press conference was held.

Other evidence offered by Payette of “normalized deviation” in the department was unprofessional social media posts by MCFR’s Technical Rescue Team, who directly report to Deputy Chief Robert Graff – the official who led the investigation of the Station 21 hazing incident. The group’s Instagram page the_roost_trt which was followed by Graff and reflected his interactions with it.

Some of the posts on that account are “extremely graphic, inappropriate and disparaging posts involving women, extremely offensive music, and sexual comments all interlaced with Marion County Fire Rescue personnel and equipment from the Tech Team.”

The page was taken down today, but the “Gazette” was able to review the page prior to its removal from Instagram. The page includes women being referred to as “hoes” and suggestive posts about “a woman’s throat” being offered in exchange for a ride in an MCFR rescue boat being pulled by MCFR trucks.

One photo appears to show a female lying trapped under a vehicle posted with a heavy metal song called “Slaughtered.” Another post shows a firefighter telling a woman in her car, “How about you shut up, you fat bitch.”

The posts on this page were all made in 2025 and incorporate MCFR equipment and the rescue team in uniform, indications that the technical team were creating content for the account while at work even employing a hashtag, #newpio. PIO is short for public information officer, usually a public employee tasked with disseminating information to the public.

While Banta didn’t seem to follow the page or engage with the posts, many other MCFR employees do. The “Gazette” noticed many accounts of young recruits to the department followed the page.

Payette not only filed his grievance for wrongful separation but also asked the county administration to launch an investigation into the leadership of the department.

“Both Chief Banta and Deputy Chief Graff have participated in establishing the culture at MCFR during their tenure,” his complaint states.

Promotion without preparation

The grievances also raise concerns about training and supervision inside MCFR, suggesting the department placed newly promoted supervisors in positions of responsibility without adequate preparation — then held them strictly accountable for the actions of others.

Payette and Bowers both argue their terminations treated them as the root cause of a problem they say they did not create.

Bowers’ legal team has maintained he had already retired to bed at Station 21 during key parts of the Nov. 16 incident and that the county’s narrative relies on disputed or mischaracterized statements from other firefighters. Payette’s grievance also cites vehicle location data that he said contradicts allegations about where he was at a key time.

Payette said he’s never been disciplined before and noted the disparity between how he was treated compared to a previous captain of the station. That captain had almost 80 pages of suggestions for improvements before he was transferred from Station 21 to another station months earlier and Payette was promoted to take his place.

Station 21 has the highest call volume in the county of any fire station. As previously reported, officials have told the Marion County Board of commissioners that station 21, amongst a few others, were operating at “twice the call volume considered safe.”

Why the grievance filings matter beyond two careers

The grievances may determine whether Payette and Bowers return to work, but they also raise broader questions for MCFR and Marion County residents.

If MCFR culture has reached a point where misconduct is routinely minimized, then the risk extends beyond one incident: it becomes a departmentwide problem affecting employee safety, retention, recruitment, and liability- in an industry that faces nationwide shortages.

A culture where “normalized deviation” runs prevalent from the top down can create a chain reaction — placing new employees at risk, pressuring bystanders into silence, and leaving supervisors vulnerable to discipline for events they did not anticipate or were not trained to prevent, all at a time when the department is in dire need of recruiting experienced officers away from other departments.

What happens next

Bouyounes has not yet issued a final ruling or indicated whether he will meet with the officers before deciding the issue.

In a statement provided to the “Gazette,” the Professional Fire Fighters of Marion County said it is supporting Payette and Bowers in the grievance process and calling for fair investigations and due process. “We adamantly oppose harassment, whether internal or external, and insist that our members are treated fairly and afforded due process,” the statement read.

Under the collective bargaining agreement, the union plays an integral part in advancing claims of the members to arbitration. In the past eight years that Banta has served as fire chief, the union members indicate its only happened once and the union was successful at arbitration.

The “Gazette” has spoken with other MCFR workers unrelated to the Station 21 event who have indicated there is widespread fear of retaliation for reporting concerns.

Banta sent an email to all MCFR workers on Dec. 23, more than a month following the Station 21 incident, telling them not to speak to the media. Also, he wrote, “As we move forward, we are intentionally starting with what some may view as “the small stuff” because small things matter when it comes to culture.

Effective immediately, we will be enforcing and reinforcing:

• Uniform and grooming standards
• Station and vehicle inspections
• Professional conduct expectations on- and off-duty
• Clear supervisory responsibility at every level”