EVERETT — A former Monroe police sergeant could be headed to prison after being convicted of sex crimes involving the teenage babysitter who watched his children a dozen years ago.
Carlos Alberto Martinez, 61, should receive 14 months in prison, the top punishment he’s eligible to receive under state sentencing guidelines, Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Lisa Paul said in court papers filed last week.
Martinez is scheduled Thursday to be sentenced by Superior Court Judge Michael Downes.
A jury in November found Martinez guilty of voyeurism and possession of depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Both felonies stem from the his secretly videotaping a 15-year-old babysitter while she took showers in the bathroom of his former Monroe home in 2004. He met the girl when she was 10 and he was teaching her drug-abuse resistance class.
Martinez maintained the videotaping was legal and devoid of sexual motivation. He testified that he was looking for signs the girl was harming herself. He also told jurors that he did have a sexual relationship with the former babysitter, but that didn’t start until she was 18, and well beyond the age of consent. At the time, she was a senior in high school and Martinez was married and 52.
The young woman wound up as Martinez’ live-in girlfriend in Texas, but the decision to move away with him “was borne out of years of manipulation and grooming by the defendant,” Paul wrote. “When she ultimately got the courage to leave the relationship, the defendant followed and harassed her.”
Although jurors found Martinez guilty of voyeurism, they also determined prosecutors had not proven the young woman learned she was spied upon within the statute of limitations necessary for filing the case in 2013. That didn’t erase the conviction, Paul wrote, it just means it can’t be factored into his sentence.
His punishment, then, rests solely on his keeping the secret tapes of the then-teenage girl. Those recordings were something he “coveted” and kept for his sexual gratification, Paul wrote.
In addition to the prison time, she asked that Martinez’ sentence require him to register as a sex offender, that he be ordered to stay away from the woman for the next 10 years, that he undergo a sexual deviancy evaluation, and that he follow through on any treatment recommendation while on community supervision. That monitoring should last for up to four years after confinement, Paul wrote.
Martinez plans an appeal. Attorney Mark Mestel earlier asked Downes to allow his client to remain free on bond. That’s an issue yet to be decided.
Scott North: 425-339-3431; north@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @snorthnews.
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