New allegations filed against Juan Martinez
Attorneys seeking disciplinary action against Jodi Arias prosecutor Juan Martinez have filed further allegations with the Arizona State Bar about Martinez’s conduct with women in the courthouse.
Within the past month, one former court aide told attorneys Karen Clark and Ralph Adams that Martinez, a deputy Maricopa County attorney, had sexually harassed her, and said that she could provide the names of seven other women who had suffered the same.
Another courthouse employee sent the attorneys a letter dated March 4 in which she described Martinez pushing her face into a piece of murder trial evidence that reeked of decomposition. Martinez’s action was famously deemed “inappropriate” by the Arizona Supreme Court when he waved that evidence in front of a trial jury for its “smelling pleasure” during a 2005 trial.
Clark and Adams filed the new allegations with the Bar’s Attorney Discipline Probable Cause Committee Wednesday. On Thursday, Martinez’s
lawyer for bar complaints objected, and the counsel for the state Bar filed motions with the committee and the state’s presiding disciplinary judge to block the new allegations from being heard at a committee meeting today.
No action has been taken on their motions. Clark and Adams initially were retained by convicted murderer Jodi Arias to file a bar complaint against Martinez for his conduct during her 2013 and 2015 trials. Arias was sentenced to life in prison for the 2008 murder of her sometime lover Travis Alexander. Clark and Adams filed their complaint in early 2017. It was one of six complaints filed against Martinez since the Arias trials. Five were dismissed by the Bar without reaching the level of a formal complaint. A sixth complaint considered Martinez’s behavior in several cases over a decade’s time, including the Arias case. It went before a disciplinary panel in September and was dismissed after a hearing.
The Bar has formally objected to that dismissal, and the Arizona Supreme Court has ordered the presiding disciplinary judge to state his legal findings as to why he dismissed the complaint.
Clark and Adams’ complaint alleged that Martinez engaged or attempted to engage women with whom he had flirtatious or outright sexual relationships to get information about jurors or leak confidential case information over social media.
And while the second Arias trial was underway, Martinez allegedly carried on an inappropriate telephone and text-message relationship with a juror who had been dismissed from the case. The woman sent naked photos to Martinez and claimed he pressed her for information on what other jurors were thinking. Martinez claimed he quickly ended the correspondence, which the woman debates.
The complaint was dismissed by the Bar in January 2018, but Clark and Adams have since appealed directly to the Bar’s Attorney Discipline Probable Cause Committee. The panel is to meet today to consider whether to reinstate or re-investigate the complaint.
On Wednesday, Clark and Adams filed more documents, including letters from several prominent defense attorneys urging the committee to investigate Martinez.
In the new letter to the Probable Cause Committee, Clark and Adams mention a woman who came forward after they filed their initial appeal.
They write, “This female court staff member reports that she was personally sexually harassed by (Martinez) in the courthouse, while she was working. The harassment included unwanted touching. She can provide the names of no less than seven other women who work (presently or in the past) for Maricopa County who were also sexually harassed by (Martinez) at the courthouse, while they were working at their jobs. These women include: judicial assistants, court bailiffs, court clerks, and a sheriffs deputy. (Martinez)’ sexual harassment of these women went on for years, including the time frame relevant to the events in this matter.”
The attorneys wrote they received a letter from a woman who was a supervisor in the county probation department where Martinez’s wife (at the time) was employed. Martinez was prosecuting the case of Cory Morris, who was sent to death row for murdering five prostitutes during sex and then keeping their bodies in the camper van where he lived until they had badly decomposed. Martinez alleged that Morris had sex with the dead bodies, which has been disputed during appeals.
The former probation supervisor wrote: “I recall in 2005, I was walking in the courthouse when I saw (Martinez) and we began a conversation. While I have no memory of the exact conversation, at some point, he told me that he was prosecuting someone by the name of Cory Morris. He suggested that I go into the courtroom with him, after the court had convened for the day. I did so, and I recall standing in the back of the courtroom while he walked to an area, around the judge’s bench, and he returned with some sort of a box/container. He stated something about a horrible smell from the clothing worn by one of the victims, murdered by Cory Morris. I recall that he removed the top of the container and I could smell a horrible stench. I recall cringing from the smell, and the next thing I knew, he placed his hand on the back of my neck and pushed my face down into the clothing so that I could benefit (for lack of a better word) from the full scent emanating from this garment.”
The woman told no one but her husband, but said that “the smell of death from this garment has remained embedded in my memory.”
During the Morris trial, Martinez removed that same garment from its container and waved it in front of the jury, saying that was for their “smelling pleasure.”
In its opinion upholding Morris’ convictions and sentences, the Arizona Supreme Court wrote that the action was inappropriate but said that “this single remark did not deprive Morris of a fair trial.”