JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A woman twice beaten by police while handcuffed has settled her lawsuit against the city of Jacksonville, according to her lawyer.
Mayra Martinez’s attorney says Sheriff Mike Williams issued a formal apology to Martinez and that her case was settled for $92,500.
"I would say in this case I don’t think she deserved what she got, the treatment she received from [Officer] Borsiade," Williams said. "She didn’t deserve that. Certainly, we apologize for it her being treated the way she was at the facility. No doubt about it."
Martinez was arrested in April 2016 in a violent takedown by officers outside of Scores strip club on University Boulevard, and later repeatedly punched in the stomach by an officer while waiting to be booked at the jail.
Videos of both incidents circulated widely on local media.
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office fired and filed criminal charges against Officer Akinyemi Borisade, who pummeled a handcuffed Martinez in the jail’s intake port, but the State Attorney's Office declined to prosecute.
In her civil suit, Martinez claimed JSO and the city of Jacksonville was liable for her being beaten and left for nearly 15 minutes on the floor of the intake port. The city sought to have the case dismissed, but in December 2019, Judge Harvey Schlesinger said 10 previous examples of excessive force by JSO "demonstrate that the city repeatedly took no corrective steps to remedy the officers’ actions."