An angry, defiant and unrepentant James Melady–the former Flagler County Fire Rescue paramedic a jury last December found guilty of raping an unconscious patient in his care–was sentenced to 10 years in prison today followed by five years on sex-offender probation. He was designated a sex offender for life.
In a statement Melady read to the court in which he showed “absolutely zero remorse, zero,” in the words of Assistant State Attorney Melissa Clark, he called his conviction “malicious” and “dangerous.” He accused “an entire system” of being a “new threat to our safety” as paramedics, “but also the safety of our communities and our families.”
“This is a system that has the audacity to call others evil,” Melady, 39, told the court, part of the very “system” he was accusing.
The victim was listening and following on zoom. She had not delivered a statement. But she had answered several of Clark’s questions. The assault took place in October 2021. Melady recorded it on video. His then-girlfriend found the recording three years later, leading to the charges against Melady. Until then, the victim had no idea what had happened in the ambulance.
She revealed that she was pregnant the day she went to see Clark about it, on Sept. 11, 2024, by which time she said she’d been sober two years. She revealed that she had a miscarriage in the elevator after leaving Clark’s office. She disclosed that she stayed in bed for a month, relapsed several times, and is now in rehab for mental health issues.
“I would like the maximum sentence because this gentleman has indirectly and directly ruined my life and he doesn’t even know it,” the victim told the court.
Melady was found guilty of sexual battery, a lesser charge than the aggravated charge Clark prosecuted. The verdict was legally inconsistent: for the lesser charge to be valid, the evidence would have had to show that the victim was not helpless, passed out or incapacitated. Yet Melady’s own recording and his own paramedic report showed and certified her as incapacitated and unresponsive.
The jury instructions explicitly spelled out incapacity: “‘Physically helpless’ means that a person is unconscious, asleep, or for any other reason physically unable to communicate unwillingness to act.” By any objective, reasonable standard, the victim met that definition. Somehow, the jury decided not to apply it. (See: “Analysis: In Melady Trial, an Evidence-Defying Verdict That Ignored Overwhelming Proof of Victim’s Incapacity.”)
The video evidence was also proof of recordings being taken of the victim, which was against Flagler County Fire Rescue practice or policy. Yet the jury found Melady not guilty of video voyeurism. (Melady claimed he filmed the encounter to protect himself in a legal dispute, should one arise. But that original recording was never produced to that end; the ex-girlfriend had recorded segments of the video using her phone, while playing the original on Melady’s laptop, which appears to have been erased subsequently.)
That reduced his maximum exposure to 15 years in prison, with credit for time already served.
Melady in his statement conceded that he indulged in a “medical fetish,” having sex in ambulances with at least one other paramedic, as was revealed at the trial. Today, he said: “If I’m going to prison, I’m at least going with my integrity intact. However, for the audience and for argument’s sake, I would like to point out that the existence of a medical fetish does not negate the necessity of a real assessment on a real patient.”
Clark objected the moment Melady in his statement addressed the victim directly. Melady said he had an apology. Clark wasn’t so sure that that’s where he was headed, the tone and substance of his statement until then belying Melady’s claim. After the judge asked that the statement be shown to Clark first, Clark still objected to it being read out loud, though it was included in the court file.
Melady’s stepfather had preceded him with a statement–both his and Melady’s mother’s–telling the court that the family stood by its belief in his innocence and his decision to go to trial. “This is not the outcome that we were hoping for, but we have always understood that it was a possible reality that we may be faced with.” Melady’s stepfather made much of Melady’s service in the military as a medic and the psychologically harrowing consequences he endured during that service, then highlighted the day when, as a paramedic, he and his partner delivered a baby. His mother in her statement called him “a war hero.” She also noted: “He has a little boy asking daily, when, when can he see his father, see his daddy.” Melady’s stepfather was briefly overcome as he read that line.
Before the trial, Melady turned down a plea offer of 20 years and 10 years on sex offender probation. He rejected it. His decision to go to trial cut both in half despite the outcome, since the jury convicted him of a lesser charge. But Melady’s criminal file is not closed. The still-pending felony charges in Flagler County and Volusia County humidify the veracity, if not the sincerity, of Melady’s statement today with the clamminess of crocodile tears.
In Flagler County, he still faces a second-degree felony charge of defrauding an elderly person, and a third-degree felony charge of credit card theft. The charges stem from Melady allegedly stealing a patient’s credit card and using it to buy over $700 worth of goods at Sam’s Club, though two additional victims were also identified in a Flagler County Sheriff’s investigation but charges were not filed in those cases. The woman Melady is alleged to have defrauded was 92, and was a patient in his ambulance, where he had access to her purse.
That investigation took place at the same time that Melady’s ex-wife informed authorities that she had discovered a secret wifi video camera Melady had installed in her bedroom to spy on her. That led to two additional felony charges filed against him in Volusia County. The case may be scheduled for trial this month.
Melady has shown no interest in settling either the Flagler or Volusia case so far, the prosecution says. If Melady is convicted on the additional charges in Flagler County, he faces up to 20 years in prison on the charges, and another 20 years on the Volusia charges, which could be tacked on consecutive to the sentence he got today, or be concurrent to it. It’s up to the judge, who was not impressed by Melady’s performance today.
“Not only did he violate [the victim], he violated the public trust, being a paramedic first responder,” Circuit Judge Dawn Nichols said after the sentence, “the public at its most vulnerable. And this individual victim was at her very most vulnerable. She was unconscious. She was impaired.” With that statement, the judge left no doubt that she disagreed with the jury’s verdict that the victim was not “physically helpless to resist.”
“And while he certainly has the right to continue to claim that he did not do these things,” the judge said, “the fact of the matter is, this was all caught on recording, and it was a recording that he took. So he is adjudicated guilty. He is sentenced to 10 years in the Department of Corrections.”
DP says
I’m glad the POS, dirt bag got some time. The state presented a poor case. He should have gotten atleast 20+ years. No where in any training manual, or hands on class for Parmedic does it, or do they teach, what he claims he was doing for the exam. I know, as I’ve been thru that such program. This dirt bad makes all EMS personal look bad. Let’s hope the state presents a stronger case on the remaining charges, and he’sput away for life. Rot in jail.
Flaglerprotected Melady says
Maybe Flagler County Fire Rescue will hire him when he gets out in 10 years! That’s the type of Fire Department they are.
Roy Longo says
Flagler County is not going to hire him back. They did not protect him either. Nobody knew anything had happened until the video surfaced. I spent my career with Flagler County Fire Rescue and no one there would have tolerated this. If any employee knew that he was doing this, it would’ve spread through the fire department like a wild fire (no pun intended). The one constant in a fire service is rumors. Somebody would’ve said something and it would’ve made it to the Chiefs.
Concerned Citizen says
What a travesty of justice. Shame on everyone of those Jurors for not ensuring Justice was handed out.
This man was a First Responder in a position of trust. He took an oath to do his job. As a sworn individual that holds him to higher standards. He used his position to violate someone. There is no reason that he shouldn’t have gotten a heftier sentence. And been labled a Sex Predator. Oh well maybe jail house justice will be served.
We can also only hope that the courts do their job on the other chargers. And put this creep away for awhile.
Skibum says
Still unrepentant after such bizarre and outrageous sexual behavior that he committed against an unconscious female patient in the back of that ambulance! He is nothing but a perverted criminal who deserves every bit of the prison sentence he got. Maybe he can hang an “OPEN FOR BUSINESS” sign on his cell door and utilize his special “medical” skills to give medically unnecessary prostate exams to willing fellow convicts in whatever prison facility he is sent to.