With eyes cast downward and squeezing a tissue, former City Council Member Miguel Martinez was sentenced to five years Tue., Dec. 15 on three counts of misusing public funds by Judge Paul Crotty at United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in lower Manhattan.
Martinez is expected to surrender to authorities on Jan. 4 and it is likely that he will serve time at Fort Dix, a low-security federal correctional facility in New Jersey. He will also have two years supervised probation and is required to pay back the roughly $100,000 he stole from taxpayers.
Before the sentencing, Martinez, dressed in a blue suit and light blue tie, addressed the court, making similar points to what he has been telling the Spanish press in recent weeks, acknowledging guilt but also noting his public service, which, he said, has been “stained by the bad decisions I made.”
With his family members weeping in the front row, Martinez’ voice cracked when he said, “not being there when my one-year-old says ‘Pop’ . . . is not something I imagined would happen to me.”
But Judge Crotty said that all the leniency allowed under sentencing guidelines had been extended to him. “The public service is a public trust. I believe based on his own omission, he violated that oath,” Crotty said during the 90-minute hearing. “There’s much about Mr. Martinez that is commendable [but] I must promote respect for law.” Martinez was sentenced to 60 months for each of the three counts with the time to be served at the same time.
“The sentence was harsh, but it was just,” said Rafael Escaño, who unsuccessfully ran as a candidate for district leader last fall, after the hearing. “The sentence is a demonstration of how justice works here.”
“It’s very sad for the district and for the constituents of the district,” said Ariel Ferreia, a former Martinez staffer.
Like many of the former City Council member’s supporters, Ferreia highlighted Martinez’ positive qualities. “During my time there he was a great guy,” he said. “I understand the public trust comes first. I’m still his friend, I still support him.”
Martinez resigned from the Council on July 14 in a one-sentence note to Council Speaker Christine Quinn. Two days later he pleaded guilty to three felony counts involving the misuse of public money.
According to the U.S. Attorney's office, Martinez personally received $51,000 based on fictitious invoices submitted to his Council office and $15,000 of the at least $163,000 he had allocated to a group called the Washington Heights Arts Center.
Additionally the ex-Council member received about $40,000 that was funneled by a developer through the now-defunct Upper Manhattan Council Assisting Neighbors (UCAN) the nonprofit group he supported with over $400,000 of discretionary funding.
During the guilty plea proceeding, according the U.S. Attorney's office, Martinez stated, "[I] was able to engage in these schemes because I was a New York City Councilman."
Martinez has spent his time between the guilty plea and the sentencing volunteering at the Inwood Regional Assistance for Interim Needs, Inc. (RAIN) senior center.
In a Nov. 13 letter to the senior U.S. probation officer for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Probation office, obtained by the Village Voice, Martinez struck a conciliatory note, saying that he had no intention of violating the law, but acknowledged that he continued paying invoices from a friend who briefly provided some services when he first took office in 2002.
"Over time, I understood that some of that money was routed back to me, yet did not report the income on my financial disclosure forms," Martinez said in the letter.
Martinez said he got involved in other schemes by the friend, identified in court papers as "CC-1," which he said benefited him financially.
"I don't know if I will ever fully understand the selfishness and carelessness that led me to make such terrible decisions, but I accept that they were my decisions, and hope that accepting responsibility for them will help me move past this to continue the healing process with my family, friends and neighbors," he stated in the letter.
(A previous headline to this article misstated the number of years in jail Miguel Martinez was sentenced to. It is five years.)
The Manhattan Times is the bilingual newspaper of Washington Heights and Inwood.
