So now the story of the Mitchell Brad Martinez, who died while being transported from the courthouse to the jail by the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office, has made it all the way to CNN.
Is anyone surprised?
Given the anti-cop sentiment that has been raging across America the past couple of years – with national news outlets feverishly fanning the flames – it was merely a matter of time until this story was added to the fire.
“There’s no question that’s contributed to the attention this incident is receiving,” said Indian River County Sheriff Deryl Loar.
One significant difference here, though: Martinez isn’t black, and there don’t appear to be any racial or ethnic issues connected to his death.
But as you’d expect in the current cops-are-killers climate that makes policing more challenging than ever, there are suspicions of wrongdoing, accusations of murder and even presumptions of guilt directed at the deputies who loaded Martinez into a van for the eight-minute drive from the county courthouse to the county jail on May 29.
There is no factual basis for these suspicions, accusations and presumptions.
They’re not based on the findings of any official investigation.
They’re not founded in any autopsy results, witness testimony or forensics.
It’s all speculation.
And judging from the hostile tone of many of the social-media posts on the “Justice for Brad Martinez” Facebook page that ignited the news media’s interest, those offering their opinions are far too emotional to possess any semblance of fairness or objectivity.
Here’s a taste of what’s there:
- “Cops are the cowards and bullies that are born among us, thus their love of the job. They LOVE intimidating, hurting, beating, threatening and TERRORIZING the very citizens who PAY their SALARIES and PENSIONS.”
- “All cops lie! No matter how ‘good’ they are. They lie on the stand, in interview rooms, etc. They are scum.”
- “It is obvious he was a victim of brutality.” … “This is murder, period.” … “If Loar is talking, then he is lying.”
Loar has seen the page. He understands law enforcement is under attack these days and that even our seaside patch of paradise isn’t immune.
That’s why he already has held news conferences, released videos and granted interviews to local media types.
“I felt it was important to get out in front of this thing from the outset,” Loar said. “We believe in following the facts, so we’re conducting an investigation. The medical examiner has examined the body and we’re awaiting the results of the toxicology report.
“I’m not going to comment on any preliminary information from the autopsy,” he added. “When we have the final report, we’ll let everyone know and discuss what we’ve got.”
He is confident that report will confirm what he has been saying all along: His deputies did nothing to cause Martinez’s death.
“We know what happened in this case,” Loar said. “There was no wrongdoing on the part of my deputies. When they found him unresponsive in the van, they did everything they could to help him.”
For those not familiar with the story:
Martinez, 37, was being transported from the courthouse to the jail after Circuit Judge Bob Pegg ruled he had violated the conditions of his bond agreement and, as a result, was revoking his bail on three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, charges stemming from an arrest in April 2013.
After his court hearing, Martinez and seven other inmates were loaded into a Sheriff’s Office van and driven to the jail. It was there, as the inmates were being unloaded, that deputies found Martinez unconscious and unresponsive.
A surveillance video taken at the jail shows the deputies carrying Martinez out of the van, setting him on the ground and immediately performing CPR in an attempt to revive him.
A jail nurse joined them and, within minutes, an emergency medical team from the county’s Fire Rescue squad arrived.
Martinez was taken to Indian River Medical Center, where he died four days later.
While the cause of his death remains a mystery, Martinez’s friends have taken to social media to demand justice, going so far as to post hospital-bed photographs of him, referring to red lines along the creases in his neck and raising the possibility that he was strangled.
Two friends have been interviewed by CNN and expressed strong suspicion of wrongdoing by the deputies.
One of them, Ryan Monto, said he believed “foul play” caused his friend’s death.
There is nothing on any of the videos, including one from the loading area at the courthouse, that offers even a hint of misconduct by the deputies.
However, conspiracy theorists on the Facebook page cite a glitch in the courthouse video, which freezes for more than a minute while Martinez is waiting to be loaded into the van.
An instant before the freeze, Martinez is seen standing outside the van.
When the video resumes, he’s already inside and the vehicle doors are shut.
A Sheriff’s Office spokesman tried to quell the suspicion, saying the courthouse cameras operate on motion sensors focused on the center of the frame. With no action occurring – Martinez was standing on the right side of the frame – the cameras paused, giving the impression that the video had been edited.
“Just my luck,” Loar said. “Believe me, I was raising hell about it. I’d rather have the whole thing on video.”
It’s a shame, really, that he’d need to.
But he might.
Turns out, the respect, admiration and trust we felt for law enforcement officers in the wake of the 9/11 attacks had a shelf life.
We have forgotten.
And it doesn’t seem to matter that bad cops are the rare exception and good cops are the rule.
The truth, though, has been drowned out by a national media that remains too quick to embrace the anti-cop narrative, sometimes jumping to erroneous conclusions – let us never forget the “Hands up, don’t shoot” lie – in a reckless rush to sell the story.
The social-media zealots also chimed in, antagonistically and often irresponsibly, to fuel the fires of anger and discontent.
It wasn’t long before a false reality was created.
“That’s just the age we live in,” Loar said.
Maybe so … but here, too?
Isn’t this supposed to be a special place? Aren’t we different from all those other communities that have forgotten the way things are supposed to be?
Shouldn’t we be better than that?
None of us – not me, not you, not any of those amateur criminologists posting on Facebook – knows what happened to Martinez on the fateful morning.
But we will.
The final autopsy report will be released in a few weeks and we’ll know.
To be suspicious is understandable, given the circumstances, but it’s foolhardy to go beyond that, given what we’ve seen.
Think about it:
- If the deputies had attacked Martinez, why didn’t they appear excited, disheveled or flustered from the encounter on the courthouse video?
- If there were such an attack, wouldn’t Martinez have resisted and wouldn’t the other inmates, despite being seated in a separate compartment of the van, have heard the struggle?
- If he had even the slightest doubt about whether his deputies caused Martinez’s death, would Loar have responded with such a strong, prompt and public statement in their defense?
For Loar to go all in, knowing he’s holding a losing hand, doesn’t make sense. You can bet he knows what happened to Martinez and can’t wait for the medical examiner’s report to land on his desk.
Not that it will matter to the Facebook crowd, which already has made up its mind.
If the medical examiner doesn’t blame the deputies and, instead, identifies some medical condition as the cause of Martinez’s death, there will be allegations of a cover-up, calls for an independent autopsy and demands for an investigation by an outside agency, such as the Florida Department of Law Enforcement or even the FBI.
Too many people are too eager to assume the worst about the men and women who wear a badge.
Even here, apparently.
And, yeah, that’s surprising.