EVERETT — A former Monroe police sergeant is expected back in court next week when prosecutors plan to ask a judge to set bail at $50,000.
Prosecutors are concerned that Carlos Martinez, 58, is searching for the woman who has accused him of sexually abusing her when she was underage.
Martinez was charged last month with numerous sex crimes, including child rape, molestation and voyeurism related to allegations nearly a decade old. Martinez is accused of instigating a sexual relationship in 2003, when the girl was 14. He was the drug education officer for the girl’s fourth- and fifth-grade classes in Monroe.
Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Lisa Paul on Wednesday filed three pages of a police report that allege that Martinez last week was attempting to get the woman’s address from the state Department of Licensing last week.
Martinez reportedly called state officials to talk about his private investigator’s license. His license was suspended in July based on allegations that he’d tried to gain access to information about the woman he’s accused of abusing.
“I believe Carlos Martinez is still actively trying to locate (the woman) and actively defaming her character as well as interfering with prospective witnesses,” a Washington State Patrol detective wrote. “Luckily most of them have seen through his attempts to defame her and believe he is crazy.”
Martinez made a brief appearance Wednesday in Snohomish County Superior Court. He pleaded not guilty to the six charges.
Prosecutors did not attempt to block his plans to attend his son’s graduation out of state this weekend. He was ordered not to have any contact with his wife or daughter, who are potential witnesses in the case.
He also is forbidden from having any contact with the woman he is accused of abusing.
The Washington State Patrol began investigating Martinez in March 2012 after it was contacted by an FBI task force based in San Antonio, Texas. Martinez was arrested there on suspicion of possessing child pornography involving the same girl, but charges were never filed.
State Patrol detectives interviewed Martinez in October. He insisted he didn’t have sex with the girl until she was 18.
Prosecutors allege that he groomed the girl, taking advantage of her sheltered upbringing. Martinez is accused of engaging in a sexual relationship with the girl when she was too young to consent. The woman, now 24, told investigators that the pair would sometimes have sex while Martinez was on duty.
Martinez left the police department in 2009 because he was about to be fired after being accused of assaulting his wife. That same year, Martinez separated from his wife and he moved to Texas with the girl he’d been molesting for six years, prosecutors allege. She went to police in Texas in 2011.
Police Chief Tim Quenzer has said the department was unaware of the allegations involving the girl until the State Patrol investigation began last year.
Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463; hefley@heraldnet.com.
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