JACKSONVILLE, Fla.—Newly released police interviews show that the officers involved in the April arrest of Mayra Martinez had very different views of what occurred – and what should have.
In the interviews, detectives from the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office Integrity Unit ask the officers involved why Martinez's arrest outside the Scores strip club turned violent. Dashcam video showed Officer Akinyemi Borisade punched Martinez numerous times and slammed her face into the pavement. Video from the jail’s intake port shows he later pummeled her until she collapsed.
Officer Nathan Vickery didn’t deliver any punches, and he told investigators he disagreed with his partner’s actions. He was disturbed enough, he told detectives, that he called his sergeant after the incident to report it.
“Were you concerned about the use of force at the parking lot?” Detective Ed Cayenne asks. “Yes sir,” Vickery answers. He adds, “There was quite a few punches thrown. It seemed like it was a lot, a lot of punches.”
Borsiade initially explained his actions as a reasonable reaction to Martinez’s erratic and drunken behavior, noting that she wouldn’t stand against the jail intake wall as told, and refused to be quiet. At one point, he notes, she kicked him.
“So she kicks you – and your response is you ball up your fist and you punch her three times in the stomach?” the Detective Cayenne asks. “What part of that falls under JSO protocol?”
Borisade didn’t answer that question, or when the detective asked what he could have done differently.
The relative inexperience of the officers – both just a few months out of the academy – was a topic detectives brought up repeatedly. First Coast News Crime Analyst Mark Baughman says age and inexperience can play a role in police brutality cases.
“They probably have little life experience – who knows if they’ve ever been in a fight? They may or may not have,” he says. “On top of that, they have to control their personal emotions and feelings, with someone spitting on them, someone kicking them. And it’s hard not to let that get personal.”
A third video released yesterday revealed yet another violent encounter between Martinez and police: A corrections officer pulls a naked Martinez to the ground by her hair. The Sheriff’s Office says its review of that incident found it wasn't criminal, but will be investigated for possible policy violations.
In an interview with First Coast News, Martinez apologized for her behavior. She intends to sue the Sheriff’s Office for civil right violations, and still faces criminal charges for trespassing and resisting arrest with violence.
Borisade faces misdemeanor battery charges, and was fired by JSO. Vickery was not disciplined.