Copyright The Oregonian
Melissa Fireside, the former Clackamas County commissioner accused of stealing from an assisted living resident, appears to have fled the country with her school-aged son using fake identification and an Austrian passport, according to court filings. The Oregon Department of Justice announced Friday it had moved to revoke her conditional release after learning she is no longer living at the address she provided the court. “Our top concern right now is the safety and well-being of this child,” Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield said in a statement. “We are working closely with law enforcement partners here and at the federal level to locate Ms. Fireside and ensure she is held accountable under Oregon law. No one should be able to evade justice by crossing a border.” Rayfield’s office said “every effort will be made to bring her into custody.” According to court records filed late Friday, Fireside’s ex-partner called Clackamas County authorities on Wednesday to report that Fireside took their 9-year-old out of school and “apparently has fled the country.” He told authorities he fears for his son’s safety. Fireside has full custody of the child. Fireside’s trial is scheduled for December. Her attorney, Shannon Kmetic, declined to comment. She faces allegations of aggravated first-degree theft, using a computer to commit theft, first-degree theft, identity theft and first-degree forgery, all felonies. She joined the Clackamas County Board of Commissioners in January and resigned March 7 after only two months in office. According to prosecutors, Fireside coached her mother’s longtime companion on how to reset his bank account login and posed as the man in emails to get $30,000 in loans. The victim is in his 80s and is a retired Safeway worker who lives in a Lake Oswego assisted living facility. He was her mother’s boyfriend. She is also accused of forging the man’s signature and that of state Rep. April Dobson, D-Happy Valley. Department of Justice officials searched for Fireside’s travel records with the U.S. Transportation Security Agency and found that she had a reservation to fly from Mexico to Amsterdam at 2:30 p.m. Thursday, according to court filings. “She has an Austrian passport that she used for the reservation that is valid until 2032,” according to an affidavit signed by Jerry Gorman, a special agent with the Department of Justice. How she came to possess an Austrian passport is unclear. Gorman wrote that Fireside may have used a fake identification to cross into Mexico.
