Cop accused of stealing from Fresno evidence named in 3 civil rights cases
The Fresno detective arrested Thursday was accused of signing about $60,000 in confiscated cash out of an evidence room and keeping it, the Department of Justice said.
Rey Medeles, 37, was terminated in June by the Fresno Police Department after an internal investigation found he had violated police policy, including signing the cash out, police said.
He’s also been named in civil rights cases that accused him and other officers of taking cash from legitimate business owners.
The Department of Justice announced Thursday that Medeles took two separate sums of $30,000 and recorded them as being returned to suspects from which they had been confiscated. Those incidents dated back to May 2024 and November 2023.
He potentially faces two counts of grand theft and two of falsifying records, the DOJ said.
Medeles joined Fresno police in 2015 and worked in narcotics enforcement, police said.
Chief Mindy Casto said Medeles was placed on administrative leave shortly after the May 2024 incident. He was terminated in June of this year.
She said the FBI was called in to assist the investigation.
“We wanted an outside investigation, something independent, because we didn’t really know if this was going to extend to more incidents or a larger number of people,” she said. “Thankfully, through this entire process, it’s not indicated any criminal conduct by anyone other than him and those two particular incidents.”
She said the regulatory agency Peace Officer Standards and Training was conducting an audit of the police department to find any potential issue with the department’s policies surrounding the evidence room.
She said the department has already made some changes to the handling of evidence though she declined to go into detail.
Casto served as deputy chief while Paco Balderrama headed the department when both of the alleged thefts took place. The handling of the evidence room was under her purview at that time as well. She said Medeles was to blame.
“He did things that he should not have done, and although we have safeguards in place, he was able to subvert them,” she said. “But again, we would be irresponsible if we didn’t look at our system and make sure that there weren’t things that we could do to help prevent someone who has the intent to do something criminal from being able to accomplish that.”
Rey Medeles at center of civil rights cases in Fresno
Medeles was named along with two other officers in three ongoing civil rights cases in separate incidents, two filed in 2024 and one in 2023.
He’s accused of unconstitutional and retaliatory arrests and deprivation of property in all three cases, and excessive force in two of them.
The cases were filed by three separate business owners who had been arrested on suspicion of firearms and drug violations, but the Fresno County District Attorney’s Office did not file charges in those cases. The three men seek damages from the city of Fresno.
All three cases are set for jury trials in the second half of 2026.
The Fresno Police Department has denied the claims in all three cases in court records, and does not comment on ongoing cases.
This story was originally published October 9, 2025 at 7:04 PM.
