Judge delays ruling on city councilwoman’s probation

BRIDGEPORT — The lawyer for the family of a young man, who died after being shot in a club managed by a city councilwoman angrily accused the state’s judicial system of allowing the councilwoman, Eneida Martinez, to avoid charges for the crime.

“This was a failure and a miscarriage of justice,” Amita Rossetti told Superior Court Judge Maria del Pilar Gonzalez as Martinez stood before the judge with her lawyers Friday.

Rossetti is suing Martinez and the city on behalf of the Nixon family for his death.

Martinez was seeking accelerated rehabilitation, a pretrial probation program, for charges she violated pandemic restrictions at the social club she managed where 21-year-old Nyair Charles Nixon was shot Sept. 27, 2020.

Martinez apologized for the incident for the first time.

“This was an unfortunate situation, I didn’t have the time to apologize before to the family because I was being verbally attacked,” Martinez told the judge. “But I would like to apologize to the family.”

Gonzalez decided following the hearing to delay her decision until April 5, stating the allegations may be too serious for the program.

Accelerated rehabilitation is a pretrial program available to defendants accused of nonviolent crimes. Under the program the defendant does not plead guilty to the charges but is placed on up to two years of probation. If the defendant commits no other crimes during the probation the charges are dismissed.

With members of the Nixon family sitting in the back of the courtroom, Rossetti urged the judge to deny the program for Martinez.

“We vehemently object to this defendant getting AR, this would be a system failure to allow the city councilwoman to wipe the slate clean,” Rossetti said.

Assistant State’s Attorney Peter Cunniff also told the judge he was objecting to Martinez getting accelerated rehabilitation.

Martinez’s lawyer, John R. Gulash, had objected to Rossetti being allowed to object to the motion for accelerated rehabilition, contending that Nixon’s family members are not victims in the case against Martinez.

The councilwoman is charged with second-degree reckless endangerment and 10 counts of illegal sale of alcohol. She is not facing any charges for Nixon’s death.

Charles Young, 37 was charged in September with murder for Nixon’s death. While police state in Young’s arrest warrant affidavit that Young shot Nixon in the bar, the affidavit states that Martinez eventually cooperated with the investigation leading to Young’s arrest, helping police find witnesses to the crime.

Gulash said Martinez has no prior criminal record and has been a major asset in the community for many years.

While Gonzalez acknowledged that under the state law regarding accelerated rehabilitation the Nixon family are not “true” victims in this case she nonetheless wanted to have as much information as she could get before rendering a decision.

She said she has no doubt there is little likelihood Martinez will offend again but was still troubled by the seriousness of the crime.

Although she later regained her seat, Martinez lost a reelection primary for her council seat after a hotly contested campaign in which her arrest was a campaign issue. The TateNixon family vigorously campaigned against Martinez’s re-election.

Martinez had been managing the former Keystone strip club on Barnum Avenue as a social club, according to police.

According to the arrest warrant affidavit in her case, when detectives went to Keystone to investigate the homicide, they saw hand-written signs on the entrance door stating it was a social club and patrons were allowed to bring their own alcoholic beverages.

Following the homicide, Martinez called police Capt. Brian Fitzgerald and they met at Keystone, according to the warrant affidavit.

The affidavit states Martinez told Fitzgerald she was the manager of the Keystone Lounge. When the homicide occurred, Martinez stated she was in the rear of the establishment and did not see the shooting, the affidavit states.

While reviewing surveillance video from inside Keystone, the affidavit states, Fitzgerald observed that most employees were not wearing face masks or any face coverings, patrons entered and remained inside without masks and there were no attempts to enforce social distancing. In fact, patrons at the bar area were standing so close they often touched, the affidavit states.

The affidavit states that the video showed Martinez working behind the bar, observing the sale of alcoholic beverages to patrons, and also observing the collection of money by security personnel.

There was no sign-in book or list of active members and employees were charging everyone admission to enter, the affidavit states. Security personnel checked many patrons for weapons but not all, the affidavit states.

At the time of the homicide, there were at least 200 people in the establishment, the affidavit states.

“When speaking to Martinez, she acknowledged that more people were probably inside than allowed,” the affidavit states.

Under health code rules because of the pandemic, Keystone — as an indoor recreational establishment — would have a limit of 50 percent occupancy with patrons and employees required to wear masks and use social distancing, the affidavit states.