Melissa Fireside, the former Clackamas County commissioner who disappeared last fall amid felony theft accusations, faces more than a dozen new charges for allegedly stealing her mother’s identity and fraudulently obtaining a pandemic-era business loan.
The latest indictment accuses Fireside of using her mother’s identity to rack up credit card purchases on Bank of America and Discover cards from 2022 through 2024. She also is accused of opening a NetCredit account using her mother’s name, address and birth date.
Her mother, Gertrude Fireside, didn’t discover the alleged thefts until last August, according to the indictment.
Shemia Fagan
Melissa Fireside
Angelita Morillo
Jessica Vega Pederson
Jennifer Williamson
Jamie McLeod Skinner
Ana del Rocio
Candace Avalos
Maxine Dexter
Shannon Jones Isadore
Tiffany Koyama Lane
Val Hoyle
Andrea Salinas
Julie Fahey
Janelle Byrum
All Emerge Oregon graduates.
@EmergeOregon appears to be more of a crime syndicate for Marxist grifters than a leadership development organization.
Fireside another grifting @EmergeOregon Marxist thief!
https://t.co/0Of3asEvmw
Kotek’s prosperity council wants her to reverse what she’s done to Oregon over the last 3.5 years. Kotek WON’T do it.
Kotek raised taxes, she didn’t lower them.
Kotek increased regulations, she didn’t cut them.
Even if she says she would, wouldn’t it just be easier to elect @ChristineDrazan???
Oregon will pay millions to those who caught COVID-19 while incarcerated
Oregon, what the hell is this?
Listen up, you hardworking Oregonians grinding through sky high taxes, rampant homelessness on your streets, failing schools, and businesses fleeing your once beautiful state. Your Democrat governor Tina Kotek and the prison system just agreed to fork over $49 million of your money to the families of inmates who died of COVID and to over 5,000 prisoners who caught it behind bars. That’s right, convicts and their lawyers get a fat payout while you’re paying for gas, rent, and watching tent cities explode.
This is peak clown world. Let me list everything wrong with this disgrace,
Your tax dollars at work, for criminals. $49 million. That’s not chump change. That’s roads not fixed, classrooms not funded, wildfire prevention not happening, or actual crime victims getting nothing. But sure, let’s cut checks to people locked up for a reason. Oregon Justice Resource Center must be popping champagne.
“Healing and closure” my ass. Governor Kotek’s saccharine statement about “impacts and hardships” on “adults in custody” is vomit inducing. These aren’t vacationers at a resort who caught a cold. Prisons are Petri dishes by design, high density, people with serious criminal histories. COVID hit nursing homes, hospitals, factories, and every workplace too. Why do inmates get special victim status and a jackpot?
Zero personal responsibility. The lawsuit whines that the state didn’t “prioritize their medical care” for high risk inmates in 2020-2021. Newsflash, the entire planet was figuring out a novel virus on the fly. Prisons implemented lockdowns, masking, and transfers like everywhere else. But no, sue the state because life in custody isn’t risk free. Maybe don’t commit the crimes that put you there during a global pandemic?
Precedent for endless grifting. This signals to every ambulance chasing lawyer and activist group: Oregon prisons = easy money. Next up, lawsuits for bad food, uncomfortable beds, or “emotional distress” from missing Netflix. The corrections workforce was already stretched thin, per Kotek, but apparently the real victims wear orange jumpsuits.
Upside down priorities. Oregon has thousands of overdose deaths, homeless veterans, elderly struggling, kids in failing schools, and businesses hammered by regulations and crime. Yet the state bends the knee to settle a civil rights suit for people who were already removed from society for harming Oregonians. The “more than 5,000” who got it? Most survived. The dead? Tragic, but prisons aren’t magic bubbles. Where’s the settlement for the law abiding families who lost loved ones to the criminals these inmates became?
Virtue signaling over competence. Democrats love this stuff, acknowledge “systemic” failures, pay out, pat themselves on the back for “healing.” Meanwhile, the underlying issues (recidivism, soft on crime policies, bloated government) get worse. This isn’t justice; it’s wealth transfer from producers to the protected class of the carceral grievance industry.
Oregonians didn’t sign up to subsidize a pandemic payout fund for felons while their quality of life tanks. This settlement is an insult another reminder that in blue state governance, the squeaky wheel (or the suing inmate) gets the grease, and the taxpayer gets the bill. Fire this up for recall or vote these clowns out. Enough. 🇺🇸 🐺
🚨 HUGE NEWS: The US Postmaster General has just told Congress that the Post Office WILL NOT deliver mail-in ballots in the 2026 midterms to states who refuse to comply with President Trump's election integrity executive order
This order makes sure mail-in recipients are CITIZENS and are who they say they are — on top of making mail-in voting more secure
LFG!! Don't let the Dems defeat this in court! 🔥
Tina Koteks staff scrambled and deleted this post.
Was it because the picture itself was from November 18 2025?
Or was it because the bill she claims to have signed very recently (look at the wording) was actually signed in August of 2023?
Or was it the power of a community note?
This is exactly the kind of behavior that erodes trust further.
Oregonians aren’t pawns in election years. Stop treating us as such.
@JoforOregon@Milajoy
Oregon waterway permit initiative to repeal the new fees on kayaks, paddleboards, and all non-motorized craft is dead in the water — they only got ~32k signatures out of 117k needed for the ballot.
This whole mess started with HB 2982 that Rep. Ed Diehl voted YES on, expanding the permit to hit regular folks floating the river.
Now even Diehl admits it was a mistake and wants to roll it back.
Government overreach on our outdoor traditions again.
Salem strikes, rural Oregon pays. Time to hold them accountable before next session.
@oregonducksmama I felt a little sad for the utility pole guy in the beginning. But by the end, he had warmed my heart. What a grateful, unassuming, beautiful human being.