DA Investigator Marcelo Molfino is Fired amidst Wage Theft and Abuse of Information Allegations

 
Jefferson County District Attorney Investigator Marcelo Molfino has been fired by District Attorney Bob Wortham.  This occurs amidst a new round of corruption allegations. I have been exposing corruption in Jefferson County for some time now. It is important that Constitutional rights of people are not trampled by government actors, and it is important that communities can trust and respect all the good law enforcement officers out there, which is why it is important to expose the bad apples.

I recently did an open records request with the Jefferson County District Attorney’s office for pay records of Investigator Molfino. It was discovered that while Jefferson County taxpayers were paying Molfino emergency pay to NOT work during Hurricane Laura, he was also getting paid in Port Arthur, TX with tax payer funds to do catering. That double dipping is not illegal although it certainly seems unethical.

The triple dipping is where things start to get illegal.

Pay records show that after Hurricane Laura, Molfino took paid time off on 9/25/2020. He was paid his full salary by the tax payers for the time that Molfino took off because Molfino claimed “comp pay.” Comp pay is when Molfino says that he worked overtime on a day in the past but instead of overtime pay, he instead takes off time in the future and still gets paid in order to make up for the extra time he previously worked. The District Attorney’s Office has yet to ever produce any records of this secret comp time stash that Molfino frequently uses to get paid time off. However, on Molfino’s time card Molfino wrote that the comp time he was getting paid for on 9/25 was earned by working extra on 8/26 during Hurricane Laura. The problem is that Molfino’s time card from 8/26 and his pay records both show that Molfino was getting paid emergency pay to NOT work on 8/26, AND additionally we know that Molfino was in Port Arthur getting paid to cook and cater during Hurricane Laura. So therefore, it is not possible that Molfino had earned any comp time on 8/26. So when Molfino claimed comp time earned on 8/26 in order to get paid to take off of work on 9/25, it appears that it was a false statement on his pay card by claiming comp time that that could not have been earned when Molfino claimed it was earned, and therefore theft of taxpayer dollars.

Molfino getting fired comes in this middle of me waiting for additional records for the County regarding this potential criminal activity.

But wait, that is not the only recent allegation of wrongdoing by Molfino.

Recently, a person named Mary Bond has come forward with allegations that Marcelo Molfino had falsified information in order to have her arrested. Furthermore, she alleges that Molfino used his government computer to access confidential past information and photos in order to leak those photos to a local political blogger. It is against the law to use information and government resources for private gain. It is called abuse of official information. Furthermore, it is certainly against the law to make false statements in order to get someone arrested.

Exactly how much these recent allegations played a part in District Attorney Bob Wortham finally letting Marcelo Molfino go is unknown. Maybe the recent events were just the straw that broke the camel’s back because there is a long list of allegations and information about wrongdoing by Investigator Marcelo Molfino from over the years. Molfino recently escaped charges of perjury, thanks to the statute of limitations running out, after a Texas Rangers investigation showed that Marcelo Molfino committed perjury by lying under oath on the stand. I have not done a follow up on that story yet but I will be posting the Texas Rangers report as soon as I get it. In short, Molfino had been trying to set up me, David Bellow, with false charges as retaliation for me having blew the whistle on Marcelo Molfino for practicing without a license, a Class A Misdemeanor. All charges against me were dropped, and now I try to help others, and help society, by working to expose the bad actors who abuse their trust and position they have been given by the citizens.

There will be more to come out as I get more data and information and records.

District Attorney Declares Marcelo Molfino UNFIT to be an Officer – Termination Report Released by Jefferson County DA Bob Wortham

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 5/5/2021:

Documents (see attached documents below) released by the Jefferson County District Attorney’s office show that the heads of all DA departments met with DA Bob Wortham and determined that Investigator Marcelo Molfino was to be terminated for lying, among other violations, and they found him to be unfit to serve as an officer of the court.

This DA Office Memo shows Marcelo Molfino was to be Terminated for Lying, Wage Theft, Violation of Policy, and Being Unfit to Be Officer. This is after a multi-year investigation by David Bellow. Thousands of cases could be called into question after this proof of Molfino's falsifications has been revealed.

The heads of the Departments within the DA’s office then typed up and signed this termination recommendation with a detailed description of their findings. I obtained this signed document through an open records request. I have attached this document to this article.

Marcelo Molfino claims he resigned with no issues, and the local news even claimed Molfino resigned with no issues, but that was just simply another lie by Molfino. As the document attached clearly proves, Molfino resigned after he was already set to be fired based on signed findings of termination by the heads of the District Attorney’s office. To report anything other than that is deceiving the public about a public servant who way lying and stealing and fired for it. Resignation in lieu of termination or a forced resignation is legally considered being fired.

This ends a half-decade saga, and vindicates me, David Bellow. I originally blew the whistle on Marcelo Molfino wage theft several years ago when I discovered that he was fraudulently taking comp time that didn’t seem to be earned, so that he could get paid by the taxpayers while he was doing illegal side jobs during his government day shift. The Texas DPS actually determined that Molfino had violated the law by practicing without a license with his side jobs, but the DA, his boss, refused to prosecute and overlooked the county policy violations such as side work not being cleared with the county so that there is no conflict of interest.

Marcelo Molfino then retaliated against me after I blew the whistle him. While still being investigated by the State, Molfino brought bogus charges against me and he himself even wrote, and falsified, the arrest warrant. It was a massive conflict of interest and a clear retaliation to try to shild himself from the criminal probe I initiated against him.? I fought back and all charges were eventually dismissed. The Texas Rangers then brought an investigation against Molfino and the DA’s office for Perjury and Official Oppression against me. They were going to bring charges and even convened a grand jury against the sitting DA office, but Molfino escaped charges due to the statue of limitations having just run out. Marcelo Molfino didn’t learn though. He went right back to using unearned comp time to steal money from the taxpayers.

Earlier this year, I did an open records request, and that is when I uncovered that Molfino finally slipped up in covering his tracks. He put on his time card that he was taking comp time and he listed the date the comp time was earned as a date that he could not have earned comp time because he was already getting taxpayer emergency pay to stay home and not work on that day. Furthermore, that day he said he earned comp time, he was in another city doing a side job that was not even cleared by the county.

That is theft of taxpayer money. I brought my concern to the District Attorney Open Records officer and requested more information and documents. Next thing you know, Marcelo Molfino resigns unexpectedly. Some did not believe what I was saying because Molfino gets involved in the community so as to appear to be an honest man, so I then did an information request for the records. That is what brings us to this article right now, and the attached county document that shows Marcelo Molfino was set to be terminated for the very same things I had turned him in for several years ago. The disbelief can be laid to rest. The documents show that this man who presented himself as honest was actually using his power and position to steal taxpayer money and retaliate against those who challenged him.

A community has been freed from a corrupt investigator who had intentionally used his power to oppress dozens of people over the years. One black man, Omar Daw, even spent 3 years in jail until the US Attorney released him based on Marcelo Molfino having been involved with an informant planting a gun in the Omar’s car. Molfino would frequently get parents in child custody family court cases to hire him and pay him money, and Molfino would then turn around and bring some criminal charge involving the ex of the person who paid him, which would give a leg up in family courts to the person who Paid Molfino. Molfino even testified under oath to getting paid $1500 cash from my ex-wife, Courtney Hudson. It was a family court, criminal enterprise run by Molfino and nothing short of bribery and public corruption. That is how I first came to know Molfino when my ex-wife, who admitted to being violent with me and leaving our one year old son in cars in parking lots, hired him because she was wanting to keep me from seeing my son even though I was by all accounts an amazing loving and involved father who has never even been accused of not being a good father. Molfino tried to go after me, but I fought back and dug for the truth, and now I am happy to say that I have been vindicated. The false charges Molfino brought against me have long been dismissed, but now I can finally show that what I was saying all along about Molfino was true now that Marcelo Molfino’s own department heads determined he lied and was unfit to be an officer.

This chapter of corruption in Jefferson County is finally coming to a close.