Yaede campaign attacks Martin for defending convicted sex offender as Air Force attorney
HAMILTON >> Jeff Martin, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of political attacks.
Martin, the 2019 Democratic mayoral candidate and Hamilton Council president, finds himself on the wrong side of the “#MeToo” movement for comments he made in defense of a convicted sex offender seven years ago.
“This is one night,” Martin said in November 2012 of the aggravated sexual assault committed by Lt. Col. James Wilkerson, a disgraced fighter pilot who molested a woman. “I’m not saying it’s a good night.”
The comment came during Wilkerson’s sentencing. Defense attorneys often argue to judges, and in this case a jury, what is known in the legal profession as mitigating factors, or circumstances the arbiter should consider when assessing the severity and culpability of the defendant. Those factors include past good deeds, remorse and the lack of a criminal record.
Republican Mayor Kelly Yaede nonetheless blasted her Democratic opponent over those remarks, especially in a time when society has taken strides to recognize and encourage victims of sexual abuse to come forward with their stories.
The ensuing #MeToo movement has toppled prominent men in all walks of life from Hollywood to a California judge, Aaron Persky, who was recalled from the bench after handing down a lenient sentence to Stanford swimmer Brock Turner after his conviction for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman.
In New Jersey, James G. Troiano, a retired judge on recall, was effectively removed from the bench in July for suggesting a 16-year-old boy accused of sexual assault should not be prosecuted as an adult because the juvenile came from a “good family.”
“Trivializing the aggravated sexual assault of a young woman by saying it was just ‘one night’ is Jeff Martin’s opinion and his alone,” Yaede said Tuesday in a statement. “He chose those words and he owes an explanation to the citizens of Hamilton Township — especially the women of our community.”
Martin has a law degree from Rutgers University and previously worked and served as an Air Force captain and lawyer in the Judge Advocate General or JAG Corps for four years, from 2009 to 2013.
He told The Trentonian in an interview Tuesday afternoon that he spent time as both a prosecutor and defense attorney representing service members charged with crimes ranging from sexual assault to drug offenses.
“When I was on the prosecution side, there was no greater feeling than ensuring that justice was done for somebody who sexually assaulted someone,” he said.
The military newspaper Stars and Stripes published an article in 2012 detailing how Wilkerson got convicted of aggravated sexual assault and subsequently sentenced to a year in jail. Martin served as Wilkerson’s defense attorney and argued his client had potential for rehabilitation and argued his client should not be subjected to five years of “warehousing,” according to the article.
Martin said he was “second chair” to lead defense attorney Frank Spinner in the Wilkerson case.
Friends of Kelly Yaede for Mayor, the mayor’s official campaign committee, bankrolled an attack ad painting Martin as “wrong for Hamilton” for “defending convicted rapists.”
“As an Air Force lawyer,” the Yaede campaign mailer reads, “Jeff Martin defended a convicted rapist, even justifying the rapist’s actions.”
In addition to slamming Martin for his defense of Wilkerson, Yaede’s attack ad also hammered Martin on the issue of Hamilton fire district consolidation and accused him of “standing up for Robbinsville” in the ongoing sewer utility dispute.
The anti-Martin attack ad features an altered version of a Trentonian file photo depicting Martin standing alongside Assemblyman Wayne DeAngelo. The newspaper never gave Team Yaede permission to use that photo, and the mayor’s inner circle previously resolved a copyright infringement dispute earlier this year when Yaede’s now-removed Hamilton Spotlight blog used a Hamilton Pulse photo without permission.
Yaede doubled down on the attack ad Tuesday when The Trentonian asked her to explain the mailer’s content.
“I’m curious as to how many times a woman needs to be a victim of aggravated sexual assault before it becomes valuable to Jeff Martin?” Yaede said. “This is not about his service or profession. This is about his choice of words, his viewpoint. Judges have been asked to resign for similar sentiments.”
Martin never imagined his representation of Wilkerson would come up in the mayoral race and slammed Yaede for turning “a victim’s traumatic experience for her own political gain.”
He found his opponent’s attacks “despicable” considering he was just “doing my job” abiding a professional oath to uphold clients’ constitutional due process rights.
“That’s what sets America apart from other countries across the world,” the Democratic challenger said. “It’s not always pretty but it’s what our country requires of us. …I did what I was obligated to do, which was to defend my client during his trial. And I understand politically that doesn’t look good. But I didn’t serve my country to get into politics. I’m trying to serve my town to the best of my ability.”
Though he did not allow his personal feelings to impact his representation of Wilkerson at the time, Martin said the case “made me never want to be involved in criminal law again.”
“It is so difficult to represent somebody who is accused of a crime that you find abhorrent,” he said. “Whatever your personal feelings, you have an obligation to defend them. It’s why, since I got out of the Air Force, I knew I couldn’t do criminal law.”
The victim, a 49-yearold physician’s assistant, testified Wilkerson’s wife interrupted the sexual assault, according to Stars and Stripes. She tearfully told jurors during sentencing she was traumatized by the assault.
“I’m not myself anymore,” she said, according to Stars and Stripes. “I’m different. I’m just numb most of the time.”
The military publication wrote Martin was “subdued” in his remarks to the jury and urged the panel to consider the impact of Wilkerson’s dismissal from service on his son.
“There are no winners here today,” Martin said, according to the publication. “But take into account people who had nothing to do with it, their futures, their lives and everything he’s worked for.”
Martin insisted he was not attempting to “diminish what my client was found guilty of” when he suggested Wilkerson’s life was turned upside down in “one night.
“What I was charged with doing at that moment was ensuring a jury understood my client’s full life, both obviously the bad and contributions he made as well,” he said.
He added sexual assault is a “permanent stain on anybody who would commit such an offense and should not be treated lightly.”
Martin said he was “good not commenting” when The Trentonian asked whether he considered the irony behind the mayor’s attacks on his profession in light of her recent legal troubles.
The mayor’s attorney, Robin Lord, saw to it that Yaede was afforded the same presumption of innocence when she was charged with having a hand in releasing GOP challenger David Henderson’s expunged criminal records.
A judge last week tossed out the disorderly persons charges against Yaede and her campaign manager Dan Scharfenberger after defense attorney Lord argued the Yaede campaign lawfully obtained the records through OPRA and had a First Amendment right to publish them.
Martin hoped victims of sexual assault and violence understand he was not defending the acts.
“I’m sorry for you being a sexual assault survivor and ever being put in that position,” he offered to voters who may have experienced such trauma. “In a perfect society, nobody would have to experience what they experienced.”
As it related to the stinky sewer claims in the attack ad, Martin claimed he was “taken out of context” when he said at a past meeting he had “to answer to the taxpayers of Robbinsville” over the ongoing sewer drama between Hamilton and its neighbor.
“I understand the mayor doesn’t want to use the full quote because then peo
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