"The Finnisher" Gets 11 Years in Galveston County Bribery Case

GALVESTON, TX — "The Finnisher" is finished. A local car dealer who took a minor bit of celebrity and flogged it through a series of commercials was sentenced to 11 years in prison for trying to bribe a cop.

At about 9 p.m. on June 17, 2014, Galveston County 9-1-1 got a call about a car bombing down SH 146 in Kemah. The caller thought the driver was drunk and was endangering other motorists.

When Kemah PD stopped the vehicle they found Riku Melartin, 54, behind the wheel and hammered. As connoisseurs of local TV news, and cheesy car commercials, will remember Melartin achieved a bit of notoriety a few years ago after he tackled a robber outside of his Bellaire home.

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Melartin then took that bit of celebrity and beat it to the death with commercials proclaiming himself "The Finnisher." He then tried to turn himself into the type of character that attracts media attention.

He convinced local TV news crews that he was a former Olympian, he wasn't, he told people about the bizarre customs of his native land and how through pluck and hard work he made his fortune in the U.S. What he didn't tell anyoene, and what indirectly led to him being drunk in a car in Kemah, was that he was basically living a double life.

There was the cheesy, James Bond wannabe of the car commercials a character that Melartin used to get people into the door of the car dealership he and his wife owned. Then there was Melartin the alleged child predator.

According to court records, Melartin and one of his employees, George Koutani, allegedly liked to give an underage girl who worked at John Keating alcohol laced energy drinks. The duo allegedly paid the girl her to let them have sex with her.

Melartin also liked him some nose candy, as evidenced by the possession of cocaine charge against him. Then there is the witness tampering. All of this came to light when Melartin was frog marched out of his home, barefoot, in front of TV cameras in 2013.

Melartin was out on a $400,000 bond when he was pulled over in Kemah in 2014. A DWI arrest violated the condition of his release, which meant he'd be right back in jail.

As he was sitting in the backseat of the cruiser, realizing that his life is crashing down around him, Melartin tried to solve his problem in a most American way: by throwing money at it.

Dash cam video shows Melartin offering to give the cop $200 to let him go, coincidentally $200 is the exact amount Melartin is accused of paying the teenage girl to have sex with her.

When the cop tells Melartin that he can't be bought for the same price as a teenage girl Melartin ups the ante, he offers $300. When that doesn't work he offers the officer all the money in his briefcase, about $1,800.

It still wasn't enough money. It took the jury less than an afternoon to convict Melartin and a lunch break to sentence him to 11 years in state prison and fine him $10,000.

Maybe he should have offered more money.