By Robert Salonga
Bay Area News Group
SAN JOSE, Calif. — A fire department captain with a history of on-the-job drug abuse – but who was able to stay on while seeking treatment for addiction – is now facing criminal charges and the suspension of his EMT license following his arrest last month on suspicion of stealing narcotics from a fire station.
Mark Michael Moalem, a 23-year San Jose Fire Department veteran, was arrested April 16 following a San Jose Police Department investigation. The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office announced Monday that it charged him with felony burglary, and misdemeanor counts of possessing a controlled substance and being under the influence of a controlled substance.
The current charges only reflect theft from one fire station, but an official audit found evidence that hundreds of vials containing drugs had been tampered with at half of the city’s 34 fire stations. Moalem, a 45-year-old Gilroy resident, did not enter a plea at his Monday court arraignment. He is on leave from the fire agency and remains out of custody after posting bond on $63,000 bail and was ordered to return to court Aug. 27.
“The community puts their lives in the hands of first responders during emergencies,” District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in a statement. “There is no excuse for violating the trust and safety of Santa Clara County residents.”
Moalem’s attorneys, Renee Hessling and Dana Fite, released a statement that emphasized his public service.
“We are confident that when all the facts come to light, a clear picture of Mr. Moalem will emerge — one that affirms the integrity and character of a man who has spent years dedicated to service while earning the respect of those around him,” the statement reads.
Three days before his arrest, the fire department said an inspection of fire station medications at Station 4 on Leigh Avenue revealed a vial of morphine in a lockbox was tampered with. Earlier that day, a paramedic reported that four doses from department-kept morphine vials had no effect on a patient with a broken leg.
Authorities suspect someone was removing the narcotics from similar vials — containing morphine and two psychoactive drugs, midazolam and benzodiazapene — and substituting an inert substance. According to a probable cause affidavit by DA Investigator Ben Holt, the inventory inspection found instances where lot numbers for some vials did not match documentation, and appeared to have been pried open to bypass their tamper-proofing.
Officials said an audit yielded evidence that more than 400 vials of the drugs had been tampered with at 17 of the city’s 34 fire stations, including a box of vials missing from a Station 4 fire engine. The police investigation later obtained surveillance images showing Moalem’s car near Station 4 when the box went missing. Images of the driver resembled Moalem, who was assigned to Station 7 off The Alameda near downtown.
Moalem also drew suspicion because on April 8 he was seen — off duty — at Station 29 in North San Jose, standing between two fire engines near where a narcotics box was kept, according to the probably cause affidavit. Moalem was reportedly nervous and, when confronted, said he was going to use the bathroom.
On-site staff knew Moalem was on vacation, prompting them to examine the narcotics box and discover signs of tampering, but they chalked it up to a possible manufacturing defect, the affidavit states.
A search of Moalem’s home April 16 led to the recovery of six fire department vial caps for morphine, four department vials of midazolam and four department caps of midazolam, four bags of IV solution and “a large quantity of needles,” authorities said. Holt, the investigator, wrote that lot numbers from the four vials of midazolam matched missing vials from the Station 4 narcotics box.
A box of disposable syringes was also found in his work locker, authorities said. He has only been charged with a theft at Station 4, and allegations that he illegally possessed midazolam and was under the influence of the drug when he was arrested at his home.
Moalem, who joined SJFD in 2002, was also suspected in the disappearance of morphine bottle from a fire station about two years ago, which was investigated by police but did not lead to criminal charges, authorities said.
While on duty in November 2013, Moalem was found unconscious on the floor of a men’s room alongside a tourniquet, an empty syringe and a vial of morphine for which he had no prescription, according to a 2015 administrative law ruling for the state Emergency Medical Services Authority.
Moalem was arrested and later admitted he became addicted to opiates following a work-related back injury in 2005. He was charged with a felony and two misdemeanors, but he received a deferred judgment, which suspended his charges in exchange for completing a court-supervised drug rehabilitation program.
Moalem narrowly kept his paramedic license and received discipline from the fire department that effectively put him on probation for four years and also included a year-long pay cut and being subject to random drug tests.
But the EMSA ruling also stated that prior to the 2013 arrest, “SJFD was aware of his drug problem,” which included Moalem being in “full blown addiction” in the previous year that led to him checking into a detox center and going on disability leave.
It was during that seven-month leave, the ruling states, that his addiction escalated to the point where he turned to drug dealers when he could no longer obtain prescriptions. He was back on duty for about five months before the bathroom incident, when he was reportedly experiencing withdrawal symptoms and decided to inject himself with morphine.
Following his deferred judgment, Moalem told the EMSA that he was receiving therapy and participating in Narcotics Anonymous. His return to duty was supported by officials involved in his rehab, fire department leaders at the time, the firefighters union and department colleagues. The state agency put his license on probationary status for five years.
Moalem’s current EMT license, which expires in July, is now listed as suspended.
©2025 MediaNews Group, Inc.
Visit at mercurynews.com.
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.