An off-duty Bexar County Sheriff's deputy, Joshua D. Martinez, finds himself on the wrong side of the bars after being busted for allegedly tampering with an official report, KENS 5 reports. Martinez, who's been with the Sheriff's Office since March 2020, supposedly twisted the truth about an October 2022 incident where he's accused of forcefully throwing an inmate to the floor, according to camera footage, and then penning a report that instead, placed blame on the inmate for diving.
As the scales of justice tip, Martinez is now on unpaid leave pending an investigation carried out by both the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigations Division and BCSO Internal Affairs, his career in law enforcement hanging by a thread, according to the same report by KENS 5.
Fellow ex-deputy Michael Fernandez, who faced the music back in March 2019 for a similar tune of allegedly tampering told KSAT in an interview that the case which followed an altercation with an inmate has left a bruise on his pride—and his wallet, with defense expenses racking up to a whopping $36,000, this after his wrongful attempts to overturn his conviction fell flat; he was eventually convicted solely on the tampering charge, according to an interview with KSAT.
Fernandez's version of events was shredded in court though jailhouse footage showed him taking the inmate, Gilbert Ramos, to the ground, leading to his eventual conviction for tampering with a record, which Fernandez staunchly opposes, claiming, "On the video, you don't see any striking," as he lamented a system that supposedly turns its own on their head, KSAT reported.
