A Dakota County deputy clocked a car doing 75 miles per hour in a 45-mile-per-hour zone near Vermillion Street and Cannon Street in Hastings on October 13, before activating lights and sirens and giving chase; during the pursuit, the deputy followed at about 120 miles per hour without closing the distance, and the incident later ended with an alleged bite inside the county jail. Marisa Francis Martinez now faces three charges stemming from that night, including felony assault of a corrections employee.
Pursuit Hit 120 MPH Without Closing the Gap
According to mncrime.com, the deputy who tried to stop the southbound vehicle watched it accelerate well past the posted limit before giving chase. Despite pushing the pursuit vehicle to roughly 120 miles per hour, the deputy reportedly never closed the distance on Martinez's car. The report says the vehicle continued along Highway 61, then onto 240th Street, Cannon Falls Boulevard, and 250th Street, at one point switching off its headlights and passing another vehicle in the oncoming lane before finally pulling over on 250th Street, a gravel road.
Once the car stopped, officers identified Martinez as the driver and sole occupant and took her into custody, the report states. Deputies noted a strong smell of alcohol coming from her, and the same account says she admitted to drinking that evening and described herself as “not completely sober.”
Field Tests and a Breath Sample Over the Limit
Martinez completed several field sobriety tests at the scene, per the report, with officers recording six clues on the horizontal gaze nystagmus test, six clues on the walk-and-turn test, and two clues on the one-leg-stand test. A preliminary breath test afterward came back over the legal limit of .08, according to the same account.
Minnesota's fourth-degree driving-while-impaired statute, as laid out by the Minnesota Revisor of Statutes, applies to a person who violates the state's specified impaired-driving provision. That is one of the three counts now filed against Martinez.
Booking Turned Physical at Dakota County Jail
Martinez was transported to the Dakota County Jail, where the report describes her becoming irate and agitated, prompting corrections deputies to remove her from the squad vehicle upon arrival. During processing, the same account says she began to resist, and deputies took her to the ground.
It was during that struggle, per the report, that Martinez bit a corrections deputy on the forearm and then attempted to bite the deputy a second time. The deputy reported pain from the bite, and photographs reportedly showed a red mark left on the forearm.
Felony Charge Tied to Assault on Corrections Staff
The alleged bite forms the basis of the most serious charge against Martinez: fourth-degree assault of a corrections employee causing demonstrable bodily harm. Under the statute cited by the Minnesota Revisor of Statutes, assaulting a correctional facility employee and inflicting demonstrable bodily harm is classified as a felony that can carry imprisonment or other sentencing. Martinez also faces a count of fleeing a peace officer in a motor vehicle, tied to the chase itself.
All three charges were filed October 15 in Dakota County District Court. Cases like this one are typically heard at the Dakota County Judicial Center in Hastings, and felony prosecutions in the county move through the Dakota County Attorney's Office within Minnesota's First Judicial District. Dakota County, which sits immediately south of Saint Paul, ranks as Minnesota's third-largest county by population.
As with any criminal complaint, the Dakota County court system presumes a defendant innocent unless and until guilt is proven. No further details on Martinez's case status have been reported.
