Former County Worker Gets 90 Days in Bribery

A former worker in the Ventura County assessor’s office who took bribes from taxpayers behind in their payments was sentenced Friday to 90 days in jail.

Jacque Sue Martinez, 29, also was placed on probation for three years and ordered to repay the district attorney’s office $450--the amount the agency spent to pay one of the bribes during an undercover investigation of the defendant.

Martinez, an Oxnard resident, will serve her jail sentence in the county’s work furlough program. She will be incarcerated at night after working during the day in the sales department of a Ventura industrial company, a job she obtained last month.

Superior Court Judge Charles R. McGrath, who followed the Probation Department’s sentencing recommendation, said it was “actually kind of lenient for the conduct involved here.”

A county employee for 11 years, Martinez resigned from the assessor’s office in January after she was arrested for clearing tax debts off county books in exchange for money paid to her.

She pleaded guilty last month to two felony charges of taking bribes.

At the sentencing hearing, defense attorney Jorge Alvarado asked that Martinez be spared a jail sentence in favor of continuing in the Sober Living Program in Port Hueneme, where she has lived the past two months.

Alvarado acknowledged that the crime itself was not drug-related, but said Martinez’s use of cocaine--brought on by the stress of mounting financial problems--clouded her thinking to the point that she was willing to solicit bribes in order to pay her debts.

“But for her drug use, she would not have been here today,” Alvarado told McGrath.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Rebecca Riley told the judge she agreed with everything Alvarado said about Martinez. Riley, however, said she believed 90 days in work furlough was a “reasonable sentence.”

Martinez worked in the assessor’s division that is responsible for identifying overdue taxes on boats and airplanes. According to court records, Martinez successfully 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.

Martinez agreed to clear the tax debt off county records in exchange for $1,100. Although she wanted to be paid the full amount at once, she agreed to be paid in installments, court records state.

District attorney’s officials were alerted to a second incident when an airplane owner contacted them in January and said Martinez offered to clear up her $900 tax debt in exchange for $450.

Authorities secretly taped a meeting between Martinez and the plane owner. Martinez collected the agreed-upon payment, which, unknown to Martinez, had been supplied by the district attorney’s office. Martinez then returned to work and doctored records to reflect that the owner’s tax liability had been satisfied, officials said.

She was arrested that day.

Martinez’s co-workers, including County Assessor Glenn Gray, have said Martinez’s behavior was an aberration in what was otherwise an exemplary career. In a letter to McGrath written before the sentencing, Martinez expressed remorse for having compromised her personal values.

Although Martinez was ordered to reimburse the district attorney’s office, the boat owner will not get his $1,100 back. “He wasn’t a victim, because what he did was illegal too,” Riley said.

Alvarado said the boat owner, who came forward after Martinez was arrested, was granted immunity in exchange for his cooperation with authorities.

Court records also state that a third taxpayer alleged that Martinez had tried to solicit a bribe from him last year. He reported it to the assessor’s office, and Martinez was questioned at the time. She denied any wrongdoing.