BUNNELL, Fla. – Less than 24 hours after a former Flagler County paramedic was arrested for sex crimes following the discovery of disturbing videos, Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly told News4JAX that he and his investigators believe there are more victims.
On Thursday, James Melady was arrested by Daytona Beach police on a warrant out of Flagler County. According to the warrant, Melady was working as a paramedic when he sexually abused an unconscious woman in the back of an ambulance as the woman was being transported to the hospital. The warrant also states that Melady recorded a cell phone video of himself sexually abusing the woman.
Click the play button below to watch the full interview with Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly
“If he had not recorded that, this victim and the sheriff’s office would not have known this occurred,” Staly said. “That video just surfaced during another investigation by another agency.”
The other agency Sheriff Staly was referring to was Daytona Beach Police who were already investigating Melady in connection to a criminal sexual case. During their investigation, they discovered two videos on his cell phone that were recorded in October 2021. According to the arrest report, the videos showed Melady was wearing a Flagler County paramedic uniform while he was sexually abusing an unconscious patient.
“This is an unfathomable attack and a disgusting attack on a helpless individual that called for medical emergency services,” Staly said. “Actually, she didn’t even call. It was another individual who called because she was unconscious. And to take advantage of this, tarnish the badge that they wear, tarnish the agency that they work for and the community is just disgusting. And I hope the prosecution and the courts will recognize what he has done and the damage he has done. Because people are likely to be concerned now to call and, you know, for help. And then, you know, people could die as a result or suffer more serious injuries. And he needs to pay a heavy price for that. These are serious felonies. One charge alone is up to 30 years in prison and I hope he gets every bit of that.”
Sheriff Staly said that based on specific details of what his investors saw when they reviewed the videos led them to believe that was not the first time Melady had taken advantage of a female patient.
“Flagler County rescue transports hundreds of people a year, so the likelihood there are victims out there that may not know they were victimized, I think is pretty strong, It did not appear to us that this was his first attempt to do this,” Staly said. “While we have not found any other videos, we think there are more investigations out there. It’s unlikely this person did one attack and changed his mind by saying this wasn’t as gratifying as I thought it would be and I’m not going to do this anymore.”
News4JAX reached out to Flagler County Fire and Rescue to find out what policies are in place to prevent sexual assaults from happening while patients are being transported to hospitals, but so far, no one has returned phone calls.
Staly said there is one way to prevent sexual abuse inside ambulances from happening.
“Sometimes they will allow a family member or a friend to ride in the back of the ambulance with the patient,” he said. “They don’t always allow that, but if they do allow that, and you can do that, then that becomes another added layer of protection, especially if it’s an unconscious person,” Sheriff Staly said while adding that a family or friend of an unconscious person can follow the ambulance to the hospital although that family or friend will not be allowed to blow through red lights.”
As for Melady, he remains in jail without bond on the Flagler Sexual assault case and he continues to be the target of a sex crimes case in Daytona Beach.
“Once in a while, you get a rotten apple and this is a rotten apple that needs to be buried under the jail and the keys thrown away,” Staly said.
As for the female victim, Staly said she no longer lives in Flagler County but was notified about the video.