EVERETT — Trial was put on hold Monday for a former Monroe police sergeant who is in the midst of testifying about his connection to a woman 35 years his junior whom he allegedly groomed for a sexual relationship starting when she was his family’s teenage babysitter.
Carlos Alberto Martinez spent much of Friday on the witness stand denying there was anything sexual about hiding cameras in his bathroom in 2004 and secretly recording the 15-year-old while she undressed and used the shower. He also said there was no sexual contact between them until early 2007, when she was 18 and he was 52.
Martinez, 61, was scheduled to resume testifying Monday morning, but defense attorney Mark Mestel was ill.
Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Michael Downes sent jurors home for the day and said he was hopeful the trial would resume Tuesday morning and reach deliberations by midweek.
“I apologize for this but this is a very human business,” Downes said of the delay.
Martinez is charged with voyeurism and possession of depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct, both felonies.
Prosecutors allege the videotaping was a crime because the former babysitter, now 26, was unaware Martinez was recording her. They also say he created and kept the videos for years for his sexual gratification.
Martinez on Friday testified that he wasn’t sexually interested in the babysitter when he created the videos. Further, he insisted that he told her about them in July 2007, months after they’d begun having an affair. They went on to live as a couple in Texas starting in 2009, but the relationship ended two years later.
The young woman testified for most of three days about her guilt and confusion over sexual conduct she insisted began with Martinez improperly touching her when she was in her early teens. She testified not knowing about the secret recordings until 2011.
Martinez on Friday said that wasn’t the case, that he’d researched the statute of limitations prior to giving her the tapes in 2011 and was convinced he faced no potential legal repercussions.
Scott North: 425-339-3431; north@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @snorthnews
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