A Melrose firefighter is being accused of stealing another man’s identity and using it to get hired at the Melrose Fire Department. 

The man in question’s true identity is not definitively known, and he was identified only as John Doe in a criminal complaint filed by a special agent with the State Department on Tuesday.

Doe was using the identity of someone that the agent identified only by their initials: HH. The real HH died in 2002, according to the complaint. 

Doe also allegedly used another name, Truong Nguyen, over the years. Nguyen “may be the possible true identity of Doe,” according to the complaint. Someone using the Nguyen name was arrested in 2010 for stealing more than $46,000 from the Norwell firefighters union while working as an officer of the union. 

In March 2023, Doe submitted a U.S. passport application inside a Weymouth post office, presenting himself as HH. Doe was not issued a passport, and investigators began looking into the matter, according to court documents. 

Investigators say that Doe attempted to use the HH identity for a passport after successfully using it to apply for and receive multiple government-issued identification documents over the years. Doe also allegedly used the HH identity to obtain EMT and paramedic certifications, according to court documents. He has been employed by the Melrose Fire Department since late January of this year. 

A person using the Nguyen name originally entered the U.S. from Vietnam in 1979 as a Legal Permanent Resident. This status was revoked and he was ordered to be deported in 1995, according to court documents.

This occurred as a result of Nguyen being convicted of second-degree burglary in 1991. He did not appear at a deportation hearing and was not physically deported to Vietnam, according to the complaint. 

While looking into this matter, investigators then found that Nguyen was arrested in 2010 for embezzlement and larceny regarding the stolen funds from the Norwell firefighters union, according to the complaint. 

The Massachusetts RMV conducted a fraud hearing in 2018 involving Doe. This occurred after a “facial recognition hit” determined that the person purporting to be HH was issued a driver’s license under two separate identities: HH and Nguyen, according to the complaint. 

During the hearing, Doe said that HH was his true identity and that he had stolen the identity of his cousin, Nguyen. The RMV closed the case and determined that HH was Doe’s true identity and that Nguyen was the stolen one, according to court documents.

Doe’s license, in the name of HH, was suspended for 6 months and was reinstated in early 2019. Nguyen’s license was also suspended and has not been reinstated, according to the complaint. 

All this information was used by investigators to develop probable cause and charge Doe for presenting false information in his passport application.