This guy Fernando Martinez plead guilty and He got a plea deal on three cases earlier this year. Barely out of jail, he gets arrested again.
Time and again, probation is not a deterrent, and we have lax laws like Prop 47, Prop 57 and AB 109 to thank.
Governor Moonbeam and California's idiotic proposition voting system is to blame for lack of public safety. You cannot prosecute if the laws are the problem.
Time and again, probation is not a deterrent, and we have lax laws like Prop 47, Prop 57 and AB 109 to thank.
Governor Moonbeam and California's idiotic proposition voting system is to blame for lack of public safety. You cannot prosecute if the laws are the problem.
Even before this press release five days ago, had been researching Martinez. I contacted DA Maggie Fleming to ask why. This was her response on November 28.
"Martinez pled guilty in CR1604173 to violation of Penal Code 415 “disturbing the peace” based upon his refusal to follow the orders of a correctional officer who was trying to stop a fight at the jail and admitted he violated the terms of the grant of felony probation in CR1600582. CR1604096 was dismissed because the officer who was the only witness was not available for the trial -defendant was in custody and time was not waived so we could not proceed on that case. The charge in CR1604096 did provide the basis for the violation of probation. Based upon the fact the violation of probation was related to misdemeanor conduct, the Probation Officer recommended imposing 180 days in custody for his violations. The judge followed the recommendation and he served 180 days. In summary, Martinez pled to what we could prove and to a probation violation that reflected additional criminal conduct. "
Dec 28, 2016
Fortuna Rohner Park arrest results in alleged heroin, meth and firearm possession
Martinez
On December 28, 2016 at about 11:00 AM a subject who was walking in Rohner Park called the Fortuna Police Department to report that as he walked by a vehicle parked in the park, he observed several subjects in the vehicle and one of the subjects was holding what appeared to be a handgun.
Fortuna Police Officers responded and located vehicle near the basketball court at Rohner Park. While contacting the 4 occupants of the vehicle, one of the officers saw a revolver in the lap of a backseat passenger. All four occupants were ordered out of the vehicle at gunpoint and detained.
While conducting a pat down search on one of the subjects, Trystan Lewis, age 18 of Fortuna, the officer located a loaded Glock .40 caliber pistol concealed in his front waistband.
While searching the vehicle, officers located a loaded .38 caliber revolver on the back seat of the vehicle where Lewis and Fernando Martinez, age 19 of Fortuna, were seated. The subsequent investigation revealed that Martinez was in possession of the revolver.
Officers also located Heroin and Methamphetamine inside the vehicle that was in the possession of Martinez. Martinez also had a Felony arrest warrant for Criminal Threats.
Martinez and Lewis were booked into the Humboldt County Jail for the following charges:
Martinez: Possession of a controlled substance (Methamphetamine), Possession of an opiate (Heroin), Felon in possession of a handgun, probation violation and the Felony warrant.
Lewis: Possession of a concealed handgun in a vehicle and on his person.
I remember reading online advice about contesting driving tickets on the premise that many of the officers that wrote the summons (tickets) didn't bother to show up, so the judge would dismiss the case.
ReplyDeleteI also remember serving on a jury where the ADA had to ask for a delay to be able to get the arresting officer in court to testify; he was in another court, on another case which was taking longer than expected.
I can understand with a limited number of officers that scheduling them to testify in court can create conflicts with their other duties but it must be frustrating for the DA's office to lose the more severe charge due to the lack of testimony.
I hope the LOE departments examine those priorities (officers not present to testify) since it only makes a bad situation worse and gives defense lawyers (only doing their jobs) more ways to short-circuit the system to the benefit of those charged with the crimes.
Thank you for the quote from DA Fleming.
It might be helpful for people to understand when charges are reduced (such as here) if the reason was because of the unavailability of LOE to testify on the more serious charges.
He also snitched on a case...Maybe that's another reason he has such "good luck".
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