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The fugitive Democrat lawmaker who fled Oregon for Europe with her son to avoid appalling fraud charges has a scandalous romantic and financial past. Melissa Fireside's ex-boyfriend Cody Bellamy, 44, revealed her unseemly secrets while pleading with the disgraced former Clackamas County Commissioner to return the couple's nine-year-old son Benicio. Fireside, also 44, removed Benicio from his school in Lexington, Oregon, without permission last Wednesday. She then fled an address in the city that she gave as part of her bail conditions. The disgraced former lawmaker traveled across the southern border and boarded a flight from Mexico to Amsterdam using an Austrian passport last Thursday. She did so weeks before she was due to face trial for allegedly scamming $30,000 from her mother's late boyfriend while he was in a senior care home. Bellamy, a trucker who now lives in Alger, Michigan, told the Daily Mail he was not surprised by the scandal that has engulfed Fireside. He branded her a 'user' with 'a lot of secrets' who he fears only wanted him as a 'sperm donor.' 'I'm terrified that I will never see my son alive again,' Bellamy said. 'I feel like I've been bereaved. 'The first I knew of what happened was when I found out Benicio had been taken out of school last Wednesday. 'I don't think Melissa would ever hurt him. She's a good mom. But now she realizes people are looking for her - you just don't know. 'Pressure can make people do crazy things.' Bellamy met Fireside online in 2014 and a romance soon blossomed. He is an unashamedly pro-MAGA Republican, while Fireside is a very liberal Democrat who was a fan of former President Joe Biden. Bellamy said the couple were able to put those differences aside - despite Fireside's digs at his family's politics - and were delighted when Benicio arrived in 2016. 'She did a home birth,' he said. 'I was really proud to be there.' But Bellamy says the relationship foundered without warning six months later. 'She woke up one day and said "I don't want to be with you anymore." I pleaded and begged, I offered to attend counseling. It was a bolt from the blue. 'I just did whatever I could do to fight it. I knew we were having problems but didn't know she wanted to call it quits.' Nine years on, Bellamy has a chilling theory about his ex's behavior. 'I almost feel like Melissa just used me as a surrogate,' he said. 'She wanted a child desperately. She saw I was a strapping, hardworking man who took care of himself financially and who wasn't going to be a deadbeat dad. 'I feel like she used me, to be honest.' Bellamy said that Fireside was flat broke when they got together. 'She had no credit. She blamed that on a former husband. She was a stay at home mom.' The hardworking trucker says Fireside used his credit to buy a $900,000 home in Lake Oswego - one of Portland's ritziest suburbs. He is puzzled as to how she subsequently became a building contractor, with Fireside reportedly planning on selling a luxury condo around the time of her arrest. Last year, Fireside borrowed $29,000 from another lawmaker, Oregon State Representative April Dobson, after claiming she was suffering a cash crunch. She is then accused of taking out a loan and credit card to the tune of $30,000 in the name of her mother's boyfriend, Arthur W. Petrone. Dobson was repaid the money she owed Fireside and there is no suggestion of any wrongdoing on her part. Petrone died in August, with his daughter Lynn Robert's insisting he was far too vulnerable to be making any such financial decisions. Fireside was elected to the powerful position of Clackamas County Commissioner in November 2024 and sworn in mid-January 2025. She was arrested over the fraud in March, just two months later, and stood down shortly after that when she was charged. Despite her own alleged rule breaking, Fireside's ex Cody Bellamy told the Daily Mail that his ex used the law against him to make obtaining custody of Benicio a living hell. 'Benicio's mom was very limited on what he could and couldn't do. 'She hated guns and wouldn't let him have any kind of sugar. 'She made him attend a French-speaking private school 'I wanted to take him hunting and fishing - and used to slip him the odd sweet treat.' After the split, Fireside initially let Bellamy see his son one day a week. He was outraged to see Fireside letting Benicio play with guns while eating candy. Fireside then sought full custody and filed a restraining order against Bellamy which he says was based on fabricated claims. Bellamy worked seven days a week to pay the $18,000 in legal bills he ran up to try and gain joint custody. By early 2023, Fireside had broken him, he said. 'Everything had to be a legal battle. She did whatever she could do to make it as awkward as possible.' Bellamy moved to Michigan for work, met a new partner and is now a father figure to her young daughters. He has continued to pay child support for Benicio and has always been desperate to be part of his little boy's life again. Astonishingly, social services in Oregon have told him that he must keep on doing do so, even though Fireside and Benicio are now presumed to be somewhere in Europe. Bellamy is so devoted to his young son that he says he is happy to pay the cash and be a good father. He told the Daily Mail he is unsure how Fireside managed to obtain a European passport. She is adopted and was disowned by her adoptive family prior to her disappearance, he said, for reasons unknown. The Austrian travel document gives Fireside the freedom to live and work in any of the European Union's 27 member nations. Bellamy says he cannot report his ex for abduction because she has full custody of their son. He is terrified that he may never see Benicio again and even fears Fireside may travel to the Middle East in a bid to avoid extradition. 'I hope Melissa can overlook her selfish needs,' Bellamy said. 'Even if she does get in trouble I would never keep her from seeing him. 'I forgive her for what she's done, but I really hope that she has no plans or intentions of never letting me see my child again.' Asked what he'd say to Fireside if she reads this interview, Bellamy was unequivocal. 'You've dug her own grave,' he said. 'Don't make our son a fugitive on the run as well. 'Don't make him feel like he can never see his dad’s family. 'Don't make it look like he has to be on the run for the rest of his life.' Speaking through tears, Bellamy concluded: 'And if I never see him again, please make sure he grows up and is a good man.' The Daily Mail has contacted the Oregon Department of Justice for comment.
