MCAO: Deputy County Attorney Juan Martinez reassigned
Juan Martinez (file)
PHOENIX - Officials with the Maricopa County Attorney's Office announced they have reassigned Deputy County Attorney Juan Martinez.
The complaints came following a number of complaints that were filed against Martinez.
"Given the Arizona Bar proceedings involving Mr. Martinez, I felt it was important to assign him a caseload that would be more flexible and allow him to take time when needed to focus on resolving these complaints," wrote Chief Deputy County Attorney Rachel Mitchell, in a statement released to FOX 10 Tuesday night that announced the decision to reassign Martinez from the Capital Litigation Bureau to the Auto Theft Bureau.
According to officials, the cases assigned to Martinez that are currently in trial or pending remain will remain with him as the lead prosecutor.
In early September, A law firm that represents Jodi Arias filed ethics complaints against Martinez and then Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery, who has was later nominated to the Arizona Supreme Court, and is now a justice of that court.
Complaints against Martinez stem from a book on the Arias trial that he wrote. The book, titled "Conviction: The Untold Story of Putting Jodi Arias Behind Bars", was published in 2016, and Martinez is accused of going on a speaking circuit, making money and gaining fame off his role as the case's prosecutor while the case is still pending. According to a February 2016 report by FOX 10, Martinez detailed how he went after Arias for the murder of her ex-boyfriend, Travis Alexander, and revealed his personal thoughts about the killer in the book, say that Arias struck him as the "bad waitress" type.
Arias is serving a life sentence after her first-degree murder conviction in the death of Alexander at his home in Mesa. The case turned into a media circus as salacious and violent details about Arias and Alexander were broadcast live around the world. Prosecutors originally sought the death penalty, but jurors deadlocked on whether Arias should be executed for Alexander's murder.
Martinez was also facing a disciplinary hearing over allegations of lying about leaking information to a blogger he was having an affair with, communicating with a dismissed juror, leaking information on the identity of a jury who was the lone holdout against giving Arias the death penalty, and sexually harassing several female co-workers.
In late August, Presiding Disciplinary Judge William O’Neil tossed allegations that Martinez made sexually inappropriate comments to female law clerks in his office, and had inappropriate contact with a woman who had been dismissed from Arias’ jury and later texted nude photos of herself to Martinez. Other allegations within the complaint remain against Martinez.