Former Compton firefighter charged with arson, embezzlement

A former Compton firefighter pleaded not guilty Friday to charges of arson, grand theft and embezzlement in connection with a fire that destroyed hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of communications equipment in December 2011.

Marcel Melanson, 37, a one-time Compton deputy chief who worked for the department for 15 years and once starred in a reality television series, is accused of stealing radios that were stored at the fire station and selling them on the Internet, then setting a fire to cover up the theft.

Melanson was arrested Wednesday morning and remains jailed on $350,000 bail. The source of his bail money will be subject to review because of the embezzlement charge.

Deputy District Atty. Renee Rose with the arson unit said the maximum sentence would be 10 years and 8 months in state prison.

Melanson’s defense attorney, Robert Rico, said he is still reviewing the case, but raised concerns that a Long Beach Fire Department investigator who is being used as an expert in the case initially opined that it was not an arson. The investigator recently changed his mind.

“I don’t believe my client committed this crime, and I’m concerned about an alleged expert changing his opinion,” he said. Rose declined to comment on details of the investigation.

The city bought the communications equipment for more than $1 million in 2010 as part of a plan to reinstate the Compton Police Department. 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.

Long Beach and Montebello fire officials conducted the arson investigation, and the sheriff’s department investigated the embezzlement allegations, Rose said.

Fire 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. He was placed on leave shortly afterward and fired in February 2013. Batiste said the close-knit department was saddened by the allegations.

“He was a very talented employee, very sharp, moved up through the ranks very quickly,” Batiste said.

Batiste said he was confident that the sheriff’s department had done a thorough investigation but that he did not want to rush to judgment.

“We’re all praying for him,” he said.

A 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. They traced those sale pitches, including some on EBay, to Melanson, who was known to have financial problems.

Sheriff’s department spokesman Steve Whitmore said investigators recovered 50 police radios from around the world and served several search warrants. The radios are valued at about $2,500 each.

“Our detectives were able to track the transactions back to Melanson,” he added.

A 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.

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. Melanson told an official that the radios would help save lives in case of a terrorist attack.

“I always thought he was the smartest guy up there,” said the city official. “I thought he should’ve been chief.”

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abby.sewell@latimes.com