9/14/2023 0 Comments Compton fire chief arrested![]() ![]() “I always thought he was the smartest guy up there,” said the city official. Melanson told an official that the radios would help save lives in case of a terrorist attack. It was Melanson’s suggestion that the city buy these specific radios that allowed officers to communicate with different police departments and fire stations in other cities, which cut out the need to call into a dispatch and find out a frequency of other first responders. “Our detectives were able to track the transactions back to Melanson,” he added.Ī city official who asked not to be named said Melanson sat on a three-person technology committee that was instrumental in the purchase of the police radios. The radios are valued at about $2,500 each. Sheriff’s department spokesman Steve Whitmore said investigators recovered 50 police radios from around the world and served several search warrants. They traced those sale pitches, including some on EBay, to Melanson, who was known to have financial problems. “He was a very talented employee, very sharp, moved up through the ranks very quickly,” Batiste said.īatiste said he was confident that the sheriff’s department had done a thorough investigation but that he did not want to rush to judgment.Ī law enforcement source familiar with the case said authorities quickly identified the embezzlement because radios believed to have been destroyed in the fire were being sold on the Internet. Melnyk was a firefighter with the Town of Little Compton from October 2, 1996, until his termination on March 6, 2019. Batiste said the close-knit department was saddened by the allegations. He was placed on leave shortly afterward and fired in February 2013. Long Beach and Montebello fire officials conducted the arson investigation, and the sheriff’s department investigated the embezzlement allegations, Rose said.įire department Deputy Chief Bryan Batiste, who came to court for the arraignment along with two of Melanson’s coworkers, said Melanson was the only firefighter at the station when the fire broke out. After the city abandoned the police department project the following spring in the face of a massive budget deficit, the radios were stored at the fire station, where they were destroyed in a December 2011 blaze. The city bought the communications equipment for more than $1 million in 2010 as part of a plan to reinstate the Compton Police Department. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |