Invasion of Privacy at Issue : Judge Puts Wraps on Martinez’s Private Finances

In a rare legal victory for San Diego City Councilman Uvaldo Martinez, a Superior Court judge Friday barred prosecutors from reviewing the indicted politician’s personal financial records in preparation for his trial next month on charges of misusing a city credit card.

Judge Barbara Gamer ruled that Martinez’s right to privacy outweighed prosecutors’ interest in using the records--Martinez’s credit report, personal credit card statements and bank account and loan records--to demonstrate a motive for the councilman’s alleged misuse of public funds.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Allan Preckel had subpoenaed the records from eight financial institutions as aids in developing a financial profile of Martinez that would help jurors understand why he may have abused the city credit card. Martinez is accused of illegally using the Visa card to purchase $1,840 in meals and drinks on 20 occasions between November, 1984, and June, 1985.

Martinez “allegedly dipped into the public pocket to pay for personal expenses,” Preckel said during a hearing Friday before Gamer. “If his financial condition was such that his personal pockets were empty, certainly his financial condition is evidence of a motive to use the city credit card to pay for food and drinks.”

But Raymond Coughlan, Martinez’s court-appointed lawyer, countered that the prosecution’s request for financial records was overly broad. Approving it, he said, would expose the private affairs of Martinez’s wife and children and subject Martinez to an unwarranted invasion of privacy by the media.

The “sweeping subpoenas,” Coughlan said, “in essence would reveal the entire financial picture not only of Mr. Martinez, but really of his whole family.” Such a step, Coughlan argued, was uncalled for in light of charges he described as “at worst a case of petty larceny.”

Concern about embarrassing revelations during the proceedings also figures in Coughlan’s request that Martinez’s trial be moved to another county. A hearing on that motion is scheduled for Sept. 29. If the trial remains in San Diego, it is scheduled to begin Oct. 14.

Gamer said she had trouble believing that the records could help demonstrate Martinez’s motive in using city funds to pay for meals and drinks that prosecutors say had nothing to do with city business.

“We’re not talking about a man trying to forestall starvation,” she said. “These are not necessary expenses for Mr. Martinez. We’re talking about drinks, expensive dinners for two or more, or, perhaps, some fun.”

She quashed the subpoena, but said Preckel could try to fashion a more narrow request for records, possibly with provisions to keep them under court seal and out of the public eye.

Gamer turned down outright Coughlan’s request for a dismissal of all the charges against Martinez and also rejected pleas that a few specific charges be dropped from the 24-count criminal information.

Coughlan argued that Preckel failed to produce any convincing evidence during a preliminary hearing in July that Martinez had covered up a dinner at Mister A’s restaurant in May, 1985, with Deborah Nordstrom, a real estate agent he had met at a La Jolla bar.

At least as convincing, he said, was testimony at the preliminary hearing by lawyer Robin Tharp and car dealer Roque De la Fuente Jr. that they may have been Martinez’s guests and that their meetings with the councilman concerned city business.

Preckel, however, said a Municipal Court judge’s decision to bind over for trial the six counts concerning the bills from Mister A’s was “not a close call.” Gamer said the prosecution’s evidence for the charges was “slim,” but she refused to dismiss them.