MDC Guaynabo, the detention facility in Puerto Rico.
U.S. District Judge Mark Kearney has denied a request by former VIPD Commissioner Ray Martinez to delay pre-sentencing detention by several months. He must now self-surrender to U.S. Marshals by Friday.
Last week, attorneys for Mr. Martinez filed a motion days ahead of his original self-surrender date asking that it be postponed until June, due to several medical issues that they said needed to be addressed before Mr. Martinez is held in custody. That request was firmly opposed by government prosecutors, who argued that the lengthy delay was unjustified. Judge Kearney pushed the surrender date back just a few days to give the parties time to flesh out their positions some more.
On Wednesday, prosecutors filed a 5-page memorandum arguing that the federal detention center to which Mr. Martinez must report is fully capable of meeting his current medical needs. After conferring with the medical director of MDC Guaynabo, the detention facility in Puerto Rico where Mr. Martinez is expected to report, prosecutors concluded that the facility “has an established and functioning system to evaluate and triage inmates’ dental and medical needs at intake, provide onsite assessment by appropriate professionals, and … facilitate access to outside providers."
From left: Attorney Matos de Juan, Ray Martinez, Diana Martinez, and Attorney Miguel Oppenheimer. (Credit: Ernice Gilbert, V.I. Consortium)
The system, they say, “encompasses specialized dental care…and diagnostic imaging,” the two services attorneys for Mr. Martinez says he needs. If his medical needs are found to be beyond the capabilities of MDC Guaynabo, his attorneys can request that he be transferred to the Federal Correctional Complex in Butner, North Carolina, which contains a prison for inmates with specialized health needs.
The memorandum opposed delaying the date for Mr. Martinez’s surrender until after February 23, which the judge had considered, ostensibly to allow for an already-scheduled diagnostic procedure to take place. “MDC Guaynabo has the established capability to schedule and conduct offsite diagnostic imaging…through its medical contractor,” prosecutors argue. The standard medical evaluation which Mr. Martinez will undergo upon arrival at the detention facility will indicate any diagnostic testing that may be needed, and such testing will be “promptly scheduled through the facility’s consult process,” the memorandum notes.
Reiterating that Mr. Martinez’s ongoing freedom post-sentencing was predicated on the agreement that he surrender on February 17, prosecutors on Wednesday requested that Judge Kearney order the former police commissioner to report to detention on Friday this week.
The district judge agreed, and ordered Mr. Martinez to surrender to Marshals by 10 a.m. on February 20.
Meanwhile, a motion filed in January seeking acquittal and a new trial for Mr. Martnez is still under consideration.
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