JUST IN: Top Dem Lawmaker Becomes International Fugitive Over Chilling Elder Abuse Scandal

A former Oregon Democrat official is on the run — allegedly vanishing across the border to Mexico with her 9-year-old son — after getting busted in a scam targeting an elderly man and skipping out on court.

Melissa Fireside, 44, a onetime Clackamas County Commissioner, is now an international fugitive. Authorities say she pulled her son out of school without permission last Wednesday, then bolted south before a December trial on first-degree theft charges.

Fireside had been accused of posing as her mother’s 83-year-old boyfriend, Arthur W. Petrone, to squeeze out a $21,000 bank loan and a $9,000 credit card advance using a forged signature. Petrone, a retired supermarket worker living in assisted care, died in August. His daughter raised the alarm after spotting suspicious withdrawals, prompting investigators to uncover evidence that Fireside also tried to take out a $35,000 loan in his name — only securing $21,000 due to Petrone’s limited funds.

Despite winning office just last November, Fireside resigned after the charges hit. When officials checked her bail address, she was gone, The Oregonian reported — and records suggest she had a flight booked from Mexico to Amsterdam last Thursday.

Melissa Fireside (Fireside campaign website)

Fireside holds an Austrian passport valid until 2032, allowing her to live and travel freely across the European Union. Oregon DOJ spokesman Jerry Gorman told the paper it was unclear how she obtained it.

Prosecutors say $29,000 of the alleged scam proceeds went toward repaying a loan Fireside had taken from Oregon State Rep. April Dobson. Dobson, a Democrat, told The Oregonian she was trying to help a struggling single mother and believed Fireside needed “temporary relief for her personal business.” There’s no indication Dobson did anything wrong.

Fireside, who owns a $900,000 home in upscale Lake Oswego and had launched an LLC tied to luxury real estate, vanished before trial — and investigators believe she headed for Europe after slipping into Mexico.

Her lawyers have gone silent. When she was first arrested, they stressed she was “entitled to the presumption of innocence.”

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