OR DOJ ok'd Fireside freedoms before she fled

Then Clackamas County Commissioner Melissa Fireside (D) (Photo courtesy ClackCo TV)

An Oregon Department of Justice prosecutor and key advisor to Attorney General Dan Rayfield (D) agreed former Clackamas County Commissioner Melissa Fireside, a Democrat, could forego in-person check-ins at the courthouse in Oregon City two months before Fireside appears to have fled the country to avoid trial on felony charges of aggravated theft arising from her allegedly defrauding her mother’s 83-year-old boyfriend out of $30,000, according to court records.

Rayfield announced via press release October 31 that Fireside had fled Oregon and booked a flight from Mexico to Amsterdam, possibly using a fraudulent Austrian passport. Rayfield’s Department of Justice is prosecuting the case due to a conflict of interest for the Clackamas County District Attorney. DOJ filed a motion to revoke the terms of Fireside’s pretrial release on account of her breaking those terms by leaving Oregon. Her trial, now postponed, was scheduled to begin in December.

In late August, Fireside’s attorney filed a motion asking the court to remove the pretrial release condition that Fireside be required to do in person check-ins at the courthouse on account of her “moving approximately 4 hours away[.]” Fireside’s attorney told the court DOJ prosecutor Christian Stringer “does not oppose the motion.” Had he not agreed to the motion, Stringer could have filed an opposition seeking to maintain the in-person requirement.

DOJ’s website lists Stringer as a member of Rayfield’s leadership team, with the title Special Counsel to the Attorney General. The website says Stringer “advises the Attorney General on [sic] variety of legal topics with a focus on issues involving public safety.”

The judge signed the unopposed order relieving Fireside of in-person courthouse check-ins and in late August, Fireside and her nine-year-old son Benicio moved from the Portland area to Lexington, Oregon, population 238, in eastern Oregon wheat country. According to Benicio’s grandmother, Mary Kay Bellamy, Fireside had asked to move into an abandoned schoolhouse Bellamy owns in Lexington. “She had sold her house in Lake Oswego, and was living in hotels,” in the Portland area.

Bellamy agreed to the arrangement, despite having had “problems” with Fireside in the past. Bellamy’s son, Michigan resident Cody Bellamy, is Benicio’s father. Mary Kay Bellamy said Fireside “wanted to get rid of Cody, but couldn’t,” contributing to the problems between the women. “She just isn’t truthful,” Bellamy said in a phone interview with Oregon Roundup Foundation. Bellamy and her husband live in a house located on the same property as the schoolhouse that was briefly Fireside’s home.

Bellamy said initially Fireside seemed content in her new rural surroundings. However, as summer ended and fall began, Fireside began making more frequent trips to the Portland area, totaling four such visits in two months, according to Bellamy. Fireside “didn’t like what her attorney wanted her to plead,” saying she could not go to prison as the mother of a young child, according to Bellamy.

Bellamy told Oregon Roundup Foundation Fireside “one time mentioned she has dual citizenship, and that Austria didn’t have extradition” to the United States. Austria is party to an extradition treaty with the United States, according to federal records.

According to court records, Fireside removed Benicio permanently from the school he attended on Thursday, October 23. DOJ investigator Jerry Gorman wrote in an affidavit that Fireside emailed the principal of Benicio’s school, Heppner Elementary, October 27 that she was withdrawing Benicio, and asked the pincipal not to tell Mary Kay Bellamy.

DOJ believes Fireside booked a flight from Mexico to Amsterdam for October 30. In his press release, Rayfield said his “top concern is the safety and well-being” of Benicio as DOJ searches for her “working closely with law enforcement partners here and at the federal level[.]” How Fireside got from Lexington to Mexico is unknown, publicly.

The whereabouts of Fireside and Benicio remain unknown, at least publicly. Mary Kay Bellamy told Oregon Roundup Foundation she has not heard anything about their whereabouts from DOJ or otherwise.

The charges against Fireside allege she tricked her mother’s 83-year-old assisted living resident boyfriend, Arthur Petrone, into changing his banking credentials to allow Fireside to withdraw funds from his account. Petrone was a retired $3,500-per-month Safeway employee, according to OPB. Fireside allegedly withdrew $30,000 in total from Petrone’s account, sending $29,000 to State Rep. April Dobson (D-Happy Valley) in repayment of a loan Dobson said she made a month earlier to Fireside, according to OPB.

Fireside resigned as Commissioner shortly after her March indictment, just five months after she ousted a Republican incumbent to win a seat coveted by Democrats in the swing county consisting of Portland suburbs. In her campaign, Fireside had support from many of the same labor and environmental groups that have suppported Rayfield as a candidate for state representative, as Speaker of the House and in his 2024 race for Attorney General.

Rayfield has declined to prosecute fellow elected Democrats, most prominently former Secretary of State Shemia Fagan, when given the opportunity. His office is prosecuting Fireside due to the Clackamas County District Attorney’s conflict of interest in prosecuting a former fellow county elected official.

May Kay Bellamy, meanwhile, just wants her grandson back safely:

“We love our grandson very much. We very much want him to come home.”

The last time Bellamy saw Benicio, before Fireside took him wherever she took him, Benicio said, “See you Monday, grandma,” according to Bellamy.

She has not seen her grandson since.

The Oregon Department of Justice did not respond to Oregon Roundup Foundation’s request for a comment for this story.

Oregon Roundup Foundation created this article. ORF is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation dedicated to covering Oregon political and government news. Media outlets are welcome to use this article with attribution of the author and Oregon Roundup Foundation.