Former Monroe officer, sex offender begins serving 14-month sentence

Ex-Monroe Police Sgt. Carlos Martinez has begun serving his 14-month sentence for sex crimes against a minor.

An appellate court decided in January not to grant a 2016 appeal of his charges, according to the Snohomish County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. The ex-cop and former Monroe School Board member was convicted in late 2015. He alleged testimony and evidence presented during the trial should not have been used. Martinez is now asking the Washington Supreme Court to review the decision.

A jury was told he had leveraged his position to groom a girl for a sexual relationship, starting when she was in the fifth grade.

She became a babysitter for his kids, and often came over to the house he shared with his then-wife to do homework and help with chores, according to court documents. When Martinez’s wife was not home, he asked her to shower and video taped her, according to court documents.

After coming home from a vacation, his wife found one of the recordings on a computer, according to court documents. He told her he kept it because it was “nice to look at.” In his appeal, Martinez said his now ex-wife’s testimony fell under spousal privilege, and should not have been used to influence the jury’s decision.

The court disagreed, in part because Martinez sometimes acted as a guardian for the girl, according to court documents. 

Martinez had admitted he had a sexual relationship with the victim, but that it didn’t start until she was 18 years old, according to court documents. She said it was when she was around 16, and testified he had started making advances when she was about 14.

Martinez moved to Texas in 2011, and the victim went with him, according to court documents. Their relationship had continued until she was in her early 20s. She testified that she felt forced into the move.

It fell apart in October 2011, and the girl contacted Texas law enforcement, according to court documents. She had provided the videos Martinez took of her, and later called the Washington State Patrol.

Texas investigators turned over a copy of Martinez’s hard drive to WSP. Martinez argued the state did not lawfully obtain the item, and it was a violation of his rights. He also alleged the prosecutor had made comments at one point that were prejudiced and affected the outcome of the trial.

The courts did not agree with those arguments and others he made in the appeal, according to court documents.

Martinez served with the Monroe Police Department for nearly two decades. He worked in schools as a D.A.R.E. officer, which is how he originally met the victim.

Charges filed were originally for two counts of voyeurism, two counts of child molestation, one count of third-degree rape of a child, and one count of possession of depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct, according to court documents. The prosecutor’s office later dismissed the rape and molestation charges. Martinez was found guilty of voyeurism, but the charge came after the statute of limitations expired, so he was ultimately only convicted of possession.

Martinez was allowed to remain out of custody on a $50,000 bond while his appeal was pending in 2016. That year he spent almost a month in Snohomish County Jail for violating conditions of his supervised release.

Martinez was found to have been in possession of a firearm and had contact with a minor without a Department of Corrections-approved chaperone. Once he was out, a provision was added to the conditions of his release that he not possess or view images of the victim, as he had reportedly found some images on an old phone. He was ordered to deliver all depictions of the victim to his attorney.

Martinez participated in a sex offender treatment program. Community Corrections Officer Miguel Santos wrote in a report written in late 2016 that Martinez should be penalized for violating his release.

“Mr. Martinez is one of those offenders who does not believe he has a sexual deviancy problem. It is important that he be sanctioned by the court,” Santos wrote in an Oct. 3 report.