Wabash County firefighter arrested on three child molesting charges

A firefighter from Wabash County has been suspended after his arrest on three counts of child molesting earlier this week.

Court documents reveal Joel McColley, 35, of North Manchester, is facing three counts of child molesting, Level 4 felonies. McColley was Assistant Fire Chief at Pleasant Township Fire Department prior to his arrest. He has since been suspended from all positions and responsibilities. A Wabash County Emergency Management volunteer, the Wabash County EMA also suspended McColley from his duties. 

“Wabash County Emergency Management expects high moral character from all members and those in leadership. Effective immediately, he has been suspended from all EMA functions and position and will be removed pending the results of any court proceedings,” officials posted to the Wabash County Emergency Management's Facebook page about the incident. 

According to court documents, the arrest came following a report of suspected child abuse made to police on June 13. The victim had allegedly told another adult that McColley had been touching them inappropriately since Christmas of 2024 and claimed the most recent incident happened just two weeks prior to it being reported to police. 

The adult reporting claimed that the victim revealed McColley was able to track the location of the victim's mother through an app on his phone and would instruct the victim to strip naked and get in bed with him when the mother would leave the house. The victim stated McColley would allegedly have them redress before the mother would return home. Allegedly McColley threatened to take away the victims' toys if they ever told anyone what McColley did to them. 

The victim later corroborated what police had already been told and included more details such as to how often the inappropriate touching occurred, how they were touched and locations where it occurred. 

McColley was also interviewed by police on June 18. Police reported that McColley nervously explained that he was often alone with the victim and the victim's siblings and that they would often roughhouse and have tickle fights. McColley told officers he could not think of any instances where the play could have been taken as sexual towards the victim. 

McColley stated the only time he'd ever touched the victim under their pants was when they had scabies and had to apply medicine but only did so when their mother was present. McColley admitted that he sometimes cuddled with the victim and said the victim would occasionally try to be inappropriate with him but that he always stopped the behavior. 

When McColley spoke with police a second time on July 8 he described times cuddling with the victim when his hand went too low on their waste but stated he pulled his hand back and that it was not intentional. McColley said he did ask the victim not to tell anyone about that incident and that the victim agreed to keep it a secret. McColley admitted to officers that he needed additional help with alcohol abuse and depression and stated he struggled with loneliness and would was often intoxicated in the home. 

McColley was arrested Monday and booked in the Wabash County Jail. Since his arrest, he was released on bond following his initial hearing. He’s also required to have no contact with the victim. 

A pretrial is set for Oct. 20, with a trial tentatively set to start on Nov. 18.