Former Do?a Ana deputy receives prison sentence after 2023 sexual assault of arrestee

Sep. 4—A former Do?a Ana County Sheriff's Office deputy was sentenced to nine years in federal prison on Wednesday for sexually assaulting a woman inside his patrol vehicle after arresting her in 2023.

On April 23, Michael A. Martinez, 34, pleaded guilty to the sexual assault and obstruction of justice for trying to destroy his patrol vehicle's digital video recorder system, which recorded footage of the incident.

According to a criminal complaint filed at U.S. District Court in Las Cruces, on April 30, 2023, Martinez responded to a crash and arrested a woman for driving under the influence and careless driving. After the woman received medical treatment, he handcuffed her, put her inside the patrol SUV and sexually assaulted her before taking her to jail.

The complaint states that Martinez later tried to destroy the DVR system "in an effort to conceal his crimes from earlier that day."

Martinez was fired from his job in August 2023.

"Sexual assaults perpetrated by police officers are heinous crimes and a disgraceful breach of the public's trust in law enforcement," Kristen Clark, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, said in a news release. "This defendant's misconduct — exploiting the power of his badge, weaponizing his authority as a police officer and sexually assaulting a handcuffed victim in the back of his patrol vehicle — violated the victim's core rights and basic standards of decency.

"We encourage survivors to come forward and report these crimes to the FBI. The sentence imposed today should send a strong message that the Justice Department will do all it can to hold accountable those who abuse their authority by sexually assaulting people in their custody."

Martinez's prison term will be followed by three years of supervised release and he will be required to register as a sex offender, the DOJ said.

Attempts were made to reach the Do?a Ana County Sheriff's Office for comment, but no one answered the phone.