Ex-Assessor Worker Pleads Guilty to Taking Bribes : Courts: Jacque Sue Martinez, 29, admits accepting a total of $1,550 to clear records of overdue taxes. She was motivated by her own mounting debts, defense lawyer says.

Admitting that she took two bribes to clear overdue tax debts off the Ventura County books, a former assessor’s office employee pleaded guilty to felony bribery charges Monday and could face as much as five years in prison.

Jacque Sue Martinez, 29, of Oxnard, a county employee for 11 years, resigned from her job after officials learned in January that she had taken $450 to erase an airplane owner’s debt. After her arrest, another resident came forward and admitted he had paid Martinez to clear records of his overdue taxes.

Her attorney, Jorge Alvarado, said Martinez’s inability to pay her own mounting debts drove her to solicit bribes from people who owed taxes on airplanes and boats.

“She unfortunately looked at her financial circumstances in such a state of disarray that she felt she couldn’t get out of it in any other way,” Alvarado said.

Martinez worked in the assessor’s department responsible for identifying overdue taxes on boats and airplanes. Alvarado said Martinez solicited her first bribe last fall, when she was discussing a $3,000 tax bill with a boat owner who said he might have difficulty paying.

“It became too easy for her at that point, and she offered to take care of it for $1,100,” Alvarado said.

The man accepted the offer and paid Martinez in installments, Alvarado said.

District attorney’s officials were first alerted to her misconduct when an airplane owner contacted them in January and said Martinez offered to clear up her tax debt in exchange for $450.

The owner of the plane owed nearly $1,000 in taxes, authorities said.

A district attorney’s spokesman said authorities monitored a meeting between Martinez and the plane owner. Martinez collected the agreed-upon payment, returned to work and doctored records to reflect that the owner’s tax liability had been satisfied, the spokesman said.

Investigators, who then checked Martinez’s bank records, concluded that she deposited the payment in her personal account, authorities said. Martinez will be sentenced May 26 by Superior Court Judge Charles R. McGrath.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Rebecca Riley said no criminal charges are anticipated against the boat owner, whose bribe payment came to light after Martinez was arrested and charged with the airplane incident.

Prosecutors gave the boat owner immunity from prosecution in exchange for his information, Alvarado said. But the owner is not expected to get his bribe money back. And both owners still owe their full tax debt to the county, County Assessor Glenn Gray said.

Gray said he was shocked when he learned what Martinez had done. In his 32 years in the assessor’s office, he has never known of any similar incident, Gray said.

“I just feel sad because I think it ruined her career, and it could ruin her life,” Gray said. “I feel bad about that.”

Gray said his office has certain checks and balances to prevent employees from doing what Martinez did, but “I don’t think there’s any perfect system.”

“If somebody decided they want to do something like that, there’s a possibility they can do that,” Gray said.

Alvarado, her attorney, said he is holding $1,550--the total bribe money--in a trust account and will release the money as soon as the court determines who should get it.

The airplane owner, who cooperated with investigators, used district attorney money to pay the $450 bribe, Alvarado said. The boat owner is not entitled to reimbursement of his $1,100 because it was illegal to pay the bribe, the attorney said.