ANAHEIM : CHP Officer Pleads No Contest in Brawl

A California Highway Patrol officer who once provided traffic reports on a local television newscast has pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge arising out of brawl at a Los Angeles Rams football game at Anaheim Stadium, court records show.

Officer Lydia K. Martinez, 27, who was accused of striking an Anaheim police officer who was trying to break up a disturbance involving Martinez and four other off-duty CHP officers, pleaded no contest to one count of trespassing last week.

Pleading no contest has the same effect as pleading guilty, except the plea cannot be used against the defendant in any potential lawsuits.

Misdemeanor charges of battery against a police officer, assault against a police officer, and resisting, interfering with and obstructing a police officer were all dismissed as part of a plea bargain struck with the city attorney’s office, records show. Her trial on all of the charges was to have started today.

Martinez, whose duties once included giving the morning traffic reports on KABC-TV, was placed on three years probation, fined $300 and ordered to pay court costs of $535, records show. She had faced up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Senior Assistant City Atty. Mark Logan, head of the city attorney’s prosecution unit, did not return several calls Monday for comment.

According to police, Martinez and the other off-duty CHP officers were attending the Rams-San Francisco 49ers football game on Nov. 22 when someone sitting nearby complained to stadium personnel that the officers were heckling other spectators.

Anaheim police officers working at the stadium went to the section and threw two of the off-duty CHP officers out of the park. One CHP officer was trying to re-enter the stadium when Martinez intervened and struck one of the Anaheim officers, police said.

Fred W. Anderson, Martinez’s attorney, said his client is “unhappy the situation turned out the way it did,” but she did not heckle anyone and also believes she was abused by the officers who arrested her. Anderson accused the officers of slamming Martinez face-first onto the stadium’s cement floor.

“Then, when they found out who she was, they tried to cover (themselves) and smooth things out,” Anderson said.

He said Martinez has not filed charges or a lawsuit against the officers “because she wants to get on with her career.”

Anaheim Police Lt. Vince Howard said the officers did not mistreat Martinez. He said that if Martinez and her attorney felt she had been mistreated, “they would have been down here filing a complaint. The reason they didn’t is they know she was the one being a jerk.”

Calls to Martinez and her CHP supervisor were not returned Monday. Anderson said Martinez has not been suspended by the CHP.