By JOSEPH KELLARD
According to detectives, Rhode Island police contacted Nassau County detectives to advise them that a subject wanted in Rhode Island may have fled to Oceanside. Detectives responded to a home on Davison Avenue and arrested Melgar, 54, who was deemed a fugitive with an active warrant for two counts of first-degree child molestation.
³Police went to his house and found the subject there, and took him into custody without incident,² said 4th Precinct Detective Sgt. Ronald Mesbitt.
Melgar was charged with having sexual conduct with a subject younger than 14, said Mesbitt, who declined to give details about the victim, including gender or relation to Melgar, but revealed that he or she was ³substantially less² than 14.
³Count one, the subject engaged in sexual penetration of a person 14 years old or under,² Mesbitt said, ³and the second count was the same count. Each incident happened on the same date.²
Mesbitt said that on March 1, Rhode Island detectives began an investigation ³that took a little while to unfold.² On March 8, the detectives notified Nassau County police that they had expedited an arrest warrant for the charges and advised them that, according to their records, Melgar was in Oceanside.
³That information was gathered from the complainant¹s side, that he lived in Oceanside,² Mesbitt said. Mesbitt said he had no knowledge of how long Melgar has lived in Oceanside, nor whether his house there was his primary home.
Melgar was arraigned in first district court on March 9, and was to be picked up by Rhode Island officials.
