Former deputy sheriff receives 9 years in prison for kidnapping and sexual assault

A former deputy sheriff in New Mexico was sentenced Thursday to nine years in prison and an additional three years of probation for kidnapping and sexually assaulting a woman while on official duty with the Doña Ana Sheriff's Office. He arrested the woman last year, authorities said.

Michael Martinez34, must also register as a sex offender under the Federal Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, the U.S. Department of Justice said. He was convicted of violating women's civil rights and obstructing justice.

Martinez pleaded guilty to both counts in April, the Justice Department said. The charges were based on his sexual assault of the arrested woman in his patrol car in April 2023 and his subsequent attempt to destroy the car's camera system that had recorded the assault.

“Sexual assault by police officers is a heinous crime and a shameful betrayal of trust in law enforcement,” Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney in the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, said in a statement. “This defendant's misconduct – abusing the power of his badge, using his authority as a police officer as a weapon, and sexually assaulting a handcuffed victim in the back seat of his patrol car – violated the victim's fundamental civil rights and basic standards of decency.”

A criminal complaint filed last year and reviewed by CBS News detailed the crimes for which Martinez later admitted responsibility. According to the complaint, Martinez was called to a car crash on April 30 in which a vehicle struck a tree and arrested one of the two women present at the scene for drunken driving and reckless driving. He initially took the woman to the sheriff's office, where tests showed her blood alcohol level was half the legal limit, and a second sample proved “inadequate,” the document said.

Martinez then took the woman, who was still handcuffed, to a medical center for a medical evaluation. According to authorities, Martinez later handcuffed her again and took her back to his patrol car, where he sexually assaulted her. He then drove the woman to the Doña Ana Detention Center and booked her into custody.

Hours later, Martinez allegedly attempted to destroy the WatchGuard DVR system in his car. On May 2, he filed a criminal damage charge with the sheriff's office. His vehicle was broken into and the DVR system and other equipment were damaged or destroyed, the criminal complaint states. During the investigation of that charge, footage of the attack and his attempt to destroy the recording system was found. He was fired from the sheriff's office shortly afterward.

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