Lawbreaking state senator ducks for cover
In the end, state Sen. Richard Martinez’s criminal trial was a case of true gall and true grit.
Martinez offered nothing but a string of “no comments” Tuesday after state District Judge Francis Mathew convicted him of aggravated drunken driving and reckless driving.
With Martinez’s two victims, Johnny and Gerrie Sisneros, in court for the verdict, the senator could have wished them well.
He could have apologized for plowing his Mercedes SUV into the rear of their Jeep, which was stopped at a red light in Española on a clear summer night. The couple received neck, back, shoulder and hip injuries in a wreck that Martinez’s lawyer dutifully but inaccurately kept calling an accident.
Martinez did nothing statesmanlike after his conviction. Perhaps this will be enough to compel someone to run against him in the Democratic primary election next June. So far, he is unopposed.
An upstart candidate would have a chance to defeat Martinez based on his behavior since the crash.
The wreck never should have happened. Martinez knows this better than most. A senator for 19 years and a Magistrate Court judge before that, he understands that drunken driving is a 100 percent preventable crime.
Martinez has said as much while voting for reforms to strengthen laws against drunken driving. It’s easy to make speeches in the Senate. In that setting, Martinez likes to talk about how he looks out for his constituents.
Well, Johnny and Gerrie Sisneros of Española are two of Martinez’s constituents. He never looked out for them.
It would have taken courage for Martinez to tell them he was sorry for lessening the quality of their lives.
Instead, Martinez displayed his brass, letting his lawyer run interference for him to the courthouse elevator. Not once since the crash he caused has Martinez shown class.
I said this case also was one of true grit. Judge Mathew supplied it.
Unlike many of his colleagues, Mathew didn’t avoid the case because a politician was the defendant.
Seven other judges either excused themselves or were removed from Martinez’s case on peremptory challenges.
Mathew could have have found a route to the sidelines. Judges typically know state legislators, and they can finagle that shirttail connection into a reason to withdraw from a case.
Mathew showed courage in taking the assignment and in handing down two guilty verdicts against Martinez.
Had prosecutors from the state Attorney General’s Office failed to meet their burden of proof, Mathew also would have been gutsy enough to acquit Martinez.
In a way, Mathew was the great equalizer. Martinez wanted a jury trial. He knew his best hope of staving o≠ a conviction was a hung jury. A single holdout would save him.
Martinez’s position as a senator gives him clout, especially in delivering money for public works projects to his Senate district.
On that basis alone, some people wanted him acquitted. Then no one could call for his ouster from the Senate. Martinez would be able to use his influence to continue obtaining money for what they considered important.
More important than any political pork was that justice be done. Mathew made sure it happened.
The judge let Martinez’s lawyer argue his case, even when it was laughable.
The defense attorney, David Foster, actually broke up people in the courtroom when he put forth an observation that working late into the night might negatively affect a driver and contribute to an accident.
Foster offered no evidence that Martinez was working while he was drinking on the Friday night of the crash. Dressed in knee-length shorts and a purple T-shirt, Martinez only implied that he was working by claiming he had been at a meeting.
The investigating officer should have pinned him down on this point but did not.
As it turned out, Mathew separated claims from facts. Indisputable was that Martinez drank alcohol. He admitted this to police. Also clear was that Martinez was driving so fast he knocked the Sisneroses’ stopped Jeep into a lane of traffic.
Johnny and Gerrie Sisneros declined to be interviewed, choosing instead to let their civil attorney, Una Campbell, make a statement on their behalf.
Campbell said there was no joy in the outcome, but her clients believe justice was done.
She also said no civil lawsuit had been filed against Martinez. But Campbell’s presence in the courtroom for his twoday criminal trial was a clear sign that she is preparing a civil action.
Her prospective case, with a lower standard of proof than the criminal matter, just got stronger.
True grit won the day in the New West.