- CLAREMONT — He drove an Infiniti, had great seats at World Series games and knew a heck of a lot about drums. To aspiring musicians, he was a godsend — a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer who believed in their music and wanted to produce their album.
But Stan Lynch was neither a producer nor a Hall of Famer. He wasn't even Stan Lynch. His real name, police say, was Ralph Melendrez, a fugitive with a long history of fraud and theft.
Claremont police arrested Melendrez on Wednesday at the Claremont Lodge where he had been living for the past three years. He is suspected of defrauding musicians and others out of at least $450,000 by using Stan Lynch's identity, Claremont Det. Rick Luginbill said.
"Every time anybody had a question, he had an answer," Luginbill said. "They said it seemed that he knew what he was talking about."
The real Stan Lynch, who played drums for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers before leaving the band nine years ago, is not pleased.
"I hate that there's somebody out there besmirching a reputation it took me 35 years to build," Lynch said from his home in Florida. "It feels very rape-like to me. Like, 'How dare you, man?' It feels horrible."
The con began to unravel this week when an attorney for aspiring Hollywood band Beat & Path called Lynch's music publisher in Nashville to check out the terms of a business proposal.
Melendrez, acting as Lynch, had offered to produce an album for the band in exchange for $75,000, police said. The attorney, Clint Feddersen, was unprepared for the call that followed.
"Eventually the real Stan Lynch called me and told me I was dealing with an impostor," Feddersen said.
The band found an address for Melendrez in Claremont. Lynch called the authorities near his Florida home and gave them the address. The Florida lawmen called Claremont police.
Luginbill went to the Claremont Lodge and found Melendrez in his motel room.
"He was pretty quiet at first," Luginbill said. Melendrez admitted he was on parole. When asked for his name, he hesitated, and then said Ralph.
"I think it had been so long since he had used his real name, that he wasn't used to saying it," Luginbill said.
Melendrez was paroled from state prison in July 1997. He served time for violating an earlier parole, getting into trouble selling bogus concert tickets in Fontana, Rancho Cucamonga and elsewhere, San Bernardino County Sheriff's Lt. Rick Carr said.
"It looks like he ripped off a lot of people," Carr said.
According to Sheriff's reports, Melendrez would tell people he was a drummer for David Bowie and would get backstage concert passes. After receiving the cash, Melendrez would disappear, according to the reports.
One person gave him money to pay his health deductible because he told the woman he was dying of cancer, Carr said.
Six years later, Melendrez still claimed to be dying of cancer, Luginbill said. The con almost worked.
"You believe he's Stan Lynch," Feddersen said. "He looks a little shorter, older and balder [than the real Stan Lynch], but he said his health is failing."
Melendrez is 5 foot 10 and 62 years old. Lynch is 47 and 6 foot 3.
Claremont police searched the motel room and found documents that Melendrez signed in Lynch's name. They also found names and phone numbers of music partners in Arizona and Colorado. Luginbill said he called them and discovered Melendrez had allegedly absconded with $335,000 from the Colorado partner, and $60,000-$80,000 from the Arizona partner.
Melendrez had allegedly promised to produce a Spanish-language demo tape. The singer recorded for Melendrez at Citrus College in Glendora, and Melendrez ultimately produced about 500 CDs, which he promised to distribute in the industry, Luginbill said.
Lynch said he can understand why people went along with it.
"You really believe what you want to believe in this world," Lynch said. "I find that so sad. I don't know what to say except, 'Man, do your homework.' "
Lynch said he had heard several years ago that someone was impersonating him in Las Vegas, and Luginbill said Melendrez may have used Lynch's identity to get a free room at the MGM Grand hotel. Luginbill joked to Lynch that Melendrez may have had more fun last year than Lynch did.
Lynch is a music producer and writer.
"I can understand why somebody would want to be me," he said. "I love being me."
Kidding aside, Lynch said he feels violated.
"There's probably some real suffering in this," he said, referring to the alleged victims. "I have no pity for him."
Melendrez's criminal history goes back at least to 1986, when he was convicted in Torrance of grand theft and sentenced to 16 months in prison.
He was in and out of prison for the next decade, picking up a couple of offenses in Barstow.
In 1994, Melendrez used the name Peter Asher while defrauding an innkeeper in Alameda County, according to Pleasanton police records. He was sentenced to six months in county jail.
Beat & Path is proud it has brought a con man to justice, Feddersen said.
"They are a very promising group," Feddersen said. "For the first time they were hearing exactly what they wanted to hear. That's probably a part of the reason this con works."
Melendrez has been returned to the California Institution for Men in Chino. Detectives are building a fraud case against him, Luginbill said.
Feddersen said the band thought about asking Melendrez to sit down at a drum set and jam on some Tom Petty songs, but never did.
Nothing Petty
Tom Petty News - May 2003
