Defense Request Challenged : Martinez Trial Shouldn’t Be Moved, D.A. Contends

San Diego City Councilman Uvaldo Martinez’s trial on felony charges of misusing a city credit card should not be moved to another county because news reports of the allegations have had a minimal impact on potential jurors, prosecutors contend.

In a document filed in San Diego County Superior Court, the district attorney’s office sought to counter arguments by Martinez’s attorney that negative pretrial publicity made it impossible for the councilman to get a fair trial locally.

Defense counsel for Martinez, who is scheduled for trial next month on 24 counts of misappropriating and falsely accounting for public funds, cited a poll showing that 27% of county residents believe he is guilty of criminal conduct while just 1% believe him innocent.

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Thomas McArdle discounted the significance of the poll findings. “The defendant’s own poll . . . shows that 12% of the populace have not even heard about the case, and 73% either believe he is innocent or have an open mind about his guilt or innocence,” McArdle said in the prosecution document, filed Friday.

“Accordingly,” he said, “the probability that we cannot find 12 fair and impartial jurors in this county is virtually zero.”

A hearing is scheduled for Sept. 29 on Martinez’s request for a transfer of the case.

Martinez’s lifelong ties to San Diego give him a substantial base of support in the area, McArdle said, mitigating any reasons to move the trial. Also, though Martinez’s attorney argued that San Diego residents, as the victims of his alleged wrongdoing, should not serve on a jury, McArdle said there were “no obvious victims” of the offenses.

The prosecution’s response mostly focuses on the impact--or lack thereof--of publicity regarding the charges against Martinez.

McArdle said coverage of the case “has not been inflammatory or otherwise calculated to prejudice the defendant.” Rather, he said, news reports have been “basically factual and even-handed in nature,” noting that wide coverage was given to Martinez’s contention that his only offense was sloppy record-keeping.

Most of the news coverage was more than a year ago, McArdle said, when allegations first surfaced that Martinez had falsified reports of his credit card use that were submitted to city auditors.

By comparison with other widely reported cases during the same period--including charges against accused police-killers Sagon Penn and Joselito Cinco and alleged multiple murderer David Lucas--”public hostility toward defendant Martinez is likely to be minimal,” McArdle said.

In requesting the transfer of the case late last month, defense attorney Raymond Coughlan said newspaper, television and radio coverage had subjected Martinez to “extensive public ridicule” and spread “gossip” and “innuendo” about his personal life. Coughlan submitted copies of more than 200 articles published in the last year, along with editorial cartoons and acerbic bumper stickers he said had made a deep, negative impression on potential jurors in San Diego.

Martinez is accused of using a city credit card to purchase $1,840 worth of meals and drinks on 20 occasions between November, 1984, and June, 1985.