A former executive director of the Alabama Fire College is disputing fraud and theft charges lodged against him in a federal indictment last month, saying the federal prosecutors have no standing to bring charges against him, The Birmingam News reported.

The indictment accuses the former director, William L. Langston, of stealing more than $1.5-million for himself and others, including other officials in the state’s beleaguered two-year-college system. But a lawyer for Mr. Langston argued in a court filing last week that the college is state supported and received no federal money from 1998 to 2006, the years in which Mr. Langston is accused of wrongdoing.

The Fire College is located on the campus of Shelton State Community College, in Tuscaloosa, and Shelton State serves as its fiscal agent. The indictment states that the Fire College was created and supported by the state, which “received millions of dollars in federal assistance” for each of the years cited in the charges. Prosecutors would not comment to the newspaper on the lawyer’s arguments but said they would respond in a later court filing.

The college system has been roiled for more than a year by accusations of corruption among some of its leaders. —Charles Huckabee