NEW ROCHELLE, NY — While Westchester County District Attorney Janet DeFiore and Brooklyn District Attorney Kenneth Thompson take turns passing the buck, a convicted child rapist who violated his probation walks the streets of New York City as a free man.
New Rochelle residents want to know why.
Over the past three months, we have been asking readers for help in locating former New Rochelle Schools Administrator and Level 2 Sex Offender Jose Martinez who raped at least one student in a New Rochelle school where he worked and served just 100 days in jail before being released on 10 years probation in 2011.
At the time, the Westchester County District Attorney’s office defended the deal on the grounds that the victim would not have to testify and Martinez would be incarcerated for the full 10 years if and when he violated probation which the DA’s office expected he would.
Martinez, whose probation case was transferred to the Kings County probation office 20 months ago after he moved to Brooklyn, may well be in violation of his probation right now but in a classic case of bureaucratic hand-washing no one is doing anything about it and Martinez continues to walk the streets a free man.
Several Talk of the Sound readers provided different pieces of the puzzle which has assisted in our efforts to locate Martinez at home and work, and to photograph him, his brown hair now dyed blonde.
The terms of probation for a particular individual are confidential but require an offender to register a new address with the New York State Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) within 10 days, report annually where they live by signing and returning an annual verification form to DCJS within 10 days after receiving it and report in person to a local police agency to have a current photograph taken every three years (Level 1 and 2 offenders) or every year (Level 3 offenders). It will be three years next months since Martinez was sentenced and his appearance has changed.
Under the New York State’s Sex Offender Registration Act, often referred to as Megan’s Law, the DCJS is responsible for maintaining New York’s Sex Offender Registry, which provides New Yorkers information about sex offenders living in their communities. There are three levels of sex offenders – Level 1 (low risk of re-offense), Level 2 (medium risk of re-offense) and Level 3 (high risk of re-offense). By law, only Level 2 and Level 3 sex offenders are listed on the public directory maintained by DCJS.
“The information is updated within a matter of one to two days after an offender self-reports a new address to his probation officer,” said Walt McClure, DCJS spokesperson.
The four addresses listed on the DCJS web site for Martinez — one home address and three work addresses — have been out of date for anywhere from at least three months to two years.
The intention behind Megan’s Law is to allow the public to know whether there are Level 2 and Level 3 sex offenders within their community and to require law enforcement authorities to make information available to the public regarding registered sex offenders.
That purpose is defeated if the information on the DCJS web site is not accurate which, in the case of Martinez, it is not.
The company at the address in Brentwood confirmed that Martinez not only does not work there but never worked there; Martinez sister did work there which suggests that Martinez provided a false work address from day one and that no effort whatsoever was made by Westchester County Probation or Kings County Probation to verify that information.
A certified letter addressed to Martinez and sent to the home address listed on the DCJS web site was returned “undeliverable” by the United States Postal Service.
Currently, none of the address information for Martinez on the DCJS website is accurate.
Based on tips from readers, Talk of the Sound has confirmed that Jose Martinez resides at 462 Prospect Place in Brooklyn, NY.
If Martinez exits his building at 462 Prospect Place and walks east a short distance, to the end of his block, he will be standing at the intersection of Prospect Place and Classon Avenue. From that point, if he makes a left and walks one block he will be at Public School 22 (Graniteville School) which serves grades K-5 and Special Education students. If he instead makes a right and walks one block he will be at Public School 316 (Elijah Stroud School) which serves grades Pre-K-5 and Special Education students. One more block and he will be at St. Teresa of Avila Roman Catholic Church, where the parish elementary school serves as the middle school (grades 5 though 8) for Brooklyn Jesuit Prep, and the Brooklyn Jesuit Prep high school grades 9 through 12).
That his current home address information does not appear on the DCJS web site suggests that Martinez is in violation of his probation.
Martinez works at Zoog Hair Studio located at 28 West 39th Street in Manhattan.
Martinez continues to engage in high-risk sexual behavior.
Martinez appears to have lied about working in Brentwood, NY.
This information and more was provided to the New York Police Department Sex Offender Unit by Talk of the Sound via certified mail but the information on the DCJS web site has not been updated.
When Westchester County District Attorney Janet DeFiore gave Martinez his plea deal in 2011 many in the New Rochelle community were outraged at what most perceived to be overly lenient terms.
At the time, DeFiore’s spokesperson Lucien Chalfen told Talk of the Sound that 10 years probation was better than what would likely have been a much shorter prison sentence because if he violated the probation he would have to serve the full 10 years.
It has not worked out that way.
Notified last June that Martinez appears to be in violation of the terms of his probation, the Westchester County District Attorney’s office passed the buck to the Westchester County Probation Department.
“I can tell you what he pled guilty to and his sentence,” said Lucian Chalfen, DiFiore spokesperson. “The terms of his probation are administered by the Westchester County Department of Probation and they can tell you specifically what they are.”
If they can, they won’t.
Westchester County Probation Assistant Commissioner Ed Barella told Talk of the Sound that Martinez’ terms of probation were confidential and he would not discuss the case beyond saying that Martinez had been transferred to Brooklyn and was no longer the responsibility of the Westchester County Probation Department.
Philip Oliva, a spokesperson for Westchester County provided details on the transfer of the Martinez case.
“Martinez was under Westchester County supervision until December 24, 2012 when he was transferred to Kings County,” said Oliva.
Over the last three months, Talk of the Sound has attempted to get answers from Ana Bermudez, Commissioner of the Department of Probation in Kings County, but never received a reply.
Talk of the Sound also contacted the New York Police Department Sex Offender Unit.
On background, a detective told Talk of the Sound that the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office was notified months ago that Martinez was not living at the address listed on the DCJS web site. At the time, his new address was not known. He said the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office refused to issue a warrant on the grounds that Martinez was not “their” case.
The detective cautioned that even if Martinez was located, he would not be re-arrested. He said that typically, the only action the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office would take would be to update the records for Martinez to make him compliant with the terms of his probation and send him on his way.
Asked about this, Brooklyn District Attorney Kenneth Thompson’s office confirmed their own buck-passing and passed the buck right back to Janet DeFiore.
“This is not a Brooklyn case. This is a Westchester case,” said Thompson spokesperson Helen Peterson. “I am not sure what you expect this office to do.”
Talk of the Sound expects that Martinez would be arrested if he violated the terms of his probation.
“If he violated the terms of his probation it is still a Westchester case” she added, “it would go back to the judge who sentenced him, so perhaps that is who you should be talking to.”
That judge would be Westchester County Criminal Court Judge Susan Cacace who sentenced Martinez to “six months time served SHOCK and ten years sex offender probation on October 11, 2011”. The sentence also came with a permanent order of protection which is in effect until October 11, 2019 for the victim.
DeFiore’s office did not respond Friday to a request for comment on Peterson’s remarks.
Talk of the Sound will follow up with DeFiore and Cacace in the coming week.
At this point, it would appear that Jose Martinez has committed the perfect crime — rape a child in New Rochelle, move to Brooklyn, work in Manhattan.
As long-time readers know, Talk of the Sound broke the story that led to Jose Martinez being placed on the State Registry for sexual predators.
Martinez plead guilty to repeatedly raping a student in his office at Isaac E. Young Middle School over a period of months in 2010. Talk of the Sound believes there were other victims including possibly one more victim at Jefferson Elementary School.
The details of the case, obtained by Talk of the Sound under a Freedom of Information request to the Westchester County District Attorney, are disturbing but important in understanding why Talk of the Sound believes every opportunity to get Martinez off the streets should be taken.
Martinez’ ability to dance between the rain drops is just part of a long-standing pattern of his escaping scrutiny by those responsible for him.
According to then-school board member Martin Sanchez, Martinez was allowed to begin working for the District in 2007 despite New York State not having cleared Martinez in a criminal background check. Sanchez says he asked about it repeatedly at the time but finally gave up and has no recollection that Martinez was ever cleared.
As we have reported in the past, Martinez was able to repeatedly sexually assault his victim in 2010 despite repeated complaints from District employees to Administrators of “red flag” behavior that should have resulted in a referral to Child Protective Services. This information came from multiple sources both immediately after Martinez’ arrest and in the months that followed.
As Talk of the Sound has previously reported, various sources have said they made complaints up the chain of command to no avail. Talk of the Sound has been told of four members of staff that made complaints about Martinez to Principal Anthony Bongo and Assistant Principal Towanda Robinson.
Two Isaac staffers say they complained to Bongo who they say refused to take action. An email sent to Talk of the Sound, states they grew frustrated by the lack of action in the building, and took the matter to School Board Member Chrisanne Petrone who was, at the time, the only board member from the South End of New Rochelle. They say Petrone referred the matter back to Bongo and Robinson.
A nurse and a security guard also say they complained to Bongo and Robinson.
Bongo claims that he advised Schools Superintendent Richard Organisciak via email of allegations of a sexual nature against Martinez but that no action was taken by Organisciak.
Elena Dilion, promoted to Supervisor of ELL and Dual Language Programs K-12 soon after Martinez arrest, spoke at length with Talk of the Sound. She said that she was “kicking herself” over the Martinez matter because she had concerns about Martinez when she worked with him at Isaac E. Young Middle School where the rapes took place. Dilion expended a great deal of energy attempting to rationalize why she would not go to authorities with what she knew or make public that she had made repeated written complaints to Organisciak about Martinez.
In 2011, Talk of the Sound reported that school district emails were being deleted en masse as part of a cover up to protect senior administration, that those who made complaints to Organisciak were being advised to print hard copies of those emails at least one one, Delion, claimed that she had done so, according to one source.
Each of the persons described above is a mandated reporter under New York State law. They are not permitted under the law to investigate possible abuse but are required to refer such matters to police or Child Protective Services.
The failure to report suspected abuse by a mandated reporter is a criminal act. There were close to a dozen people in the New Rochelle School District who had a legal obligation to refer Martinez for investigation but none did so.
Incredibly, despite the many complaints and concerns about Martinez, he was promoted from Administrative Dean at Isaac E. Young Middle School to Assistant Principal at Jefferson Elementary School a few months later. He received the support of Bongo, Organisciak, and Petrone for his appointment to the position of Assistant Principal at Jefferson Elementary School.
While the phenomenon known in school bureaucracies as “pass the trash” is commonplace, in this case it had disastrous consequences as records obtained from the Westchester County District Attorney under a Freedom of Information request by Talk of the Sound show that Martinez continued his relationship with the victim for another year before he was confronted by the victim’s mother in March, 2011.
The issue of emails being purged from the District’s email system raises another question. Why does the District maintain two separate email networks — one for central office staff and senior administrators and one for all other district employees.
The main email system (“nred”), used by over 90% of employees, is a web-based system maintained by the Lower Hudson Regional Information Center (LHRIC), a consortium providing educational and administrative technology services to 62 school districts in Westchester, Putnam, and Rockland counties including New Rochelle. LHRIC offers a professionally run data center managed by a team of 175 IT professionals and related staff with UPS Power Supplies, RAID array back up systems and other system redundancies. There was been no significant downtime since the nred system went live.
The other email system (“k12”) used by less than 10% of employees, is run on a rinky-dink computer set up at New Rochelle High School which has none of the system redundancies and IT professionals available at LHRIC for which the District already pays as a member of the consortium.
It would be interesting to know how many other LHRIC consortium members maintain a separate email system for administrators and their staff as is the case in New Rochelle.
The k12 system has routinely failed to operate during power failures such as Hurricane Sandy and the manhole cover fire in June 2013. In other words, the system is not available at precisely the times it is needed most.
The k12 email system is under the direct control of the District’s IT Director, Dr. Christine Coleman, reporting up the chain of command to what has been John Quinn and Richard Organisciak. It is a system where all emails and backups can easily be purged. That appears to be what took place in 2011 when Jose Martinez was arrested.
The coverup of the Martinez case began immediately in 2011 when Jefferson Elementary School Principal Kimmerly Nieves found a resignation letter on her desk on Monday, March 14th. Rather than notify anyone at the central office, Nieves spent two days attempting to contact Martinez on her own. On the evening of Tuesday, March 15th she informed Schools Superintendent Richard Organisciak that Martinez had resigned and gone to ground.
At a school board meeting later that evening, which included an executive session meeting, Richard Organisciak failed to inform the board that Martinez had resigned and gone missing.
On Thursday March 17th, Talk of the Sound reached out to several board members to seek comment for the story that ran on March 18th which broke the news that Martinez had disappeared after he was confronted with allegations of a sexual nature. The three board members stated they had no knowledge of Martinez resigning, being unreachable or allegations of sexual abuse.
That weekend, Nieves sent out a robocall to Jefferson parents claiming that Martinez had resigned for “personal reasons” and wishing him “the best in the future”. Many Jefferson parents initially believed that Martinez had a serious illness, a misperception that was encouraged by the District.
Realize that at this point, whatever Nieves knew or did not know about the “live grenade” she had been handed by her administrative colleagues when Martinez was promoted to Assistant Principal at her school the year before, they knew. A statement on Martinez would not have gone out without careful review by Organisciak and the District’s attorney Jeffrey Kehl and possibly one or two senior board members.
Yet, there were at least a dozen people who already knew about the allegations of sexual abuse at Isaac E. Young Middle School from a year earlier, including the Superintendent, at least one board member and the leadership team at Isaac. Further, the entire community was buzzing about our story on Friday reporting that Martinez left over allegations of sexual abuse.
Over the weekend, board members exchanged a series of emails about the Martinez situation which were then leaked to the Journal News (in an odd twist, Talk of the Sound was accused by District leadership of having leaked the emails to the Journal News, as if we would ever give the Gannett paper a scoop and not publish them ourselves).
On March 21st, Organisciak dispatched School Security Director Bruce Daniele and School Security Officer Thomas Koehler to Martinez’ home in Brentwood, NY to locate him and attempt to bring him back to New Rochelle.
On March 22nd, the Journal News reported that Martinez lawyer claimed that Martinez was asked to leave by the administration. School officials claimed to have been surprised by the arrest. They made various statements to the effect that they did not know anything about Martinez resigning or why he resigned.
School District spokesman Paul Costiglio issued a statement that would have almost certainly been prepared for him by Richard Organisciak and Jeffrey Kehl.
“We’re hoping there is not an untoward reason for why he might have gone missing”.
Costiglio claimed the District did not know where Martinez lived.
Organisciak said the district asked “local law enforcement officials” for assistance in locating Martinez. As the District supposedly did not know that Martinez lived in Brentwood, on Long Island, that would rule out the possibility that Organisciak was referring to Brentwood police when he said “local law enforcement officials”. But of course they knew where he lived.
Former School Board Member Martin Sanchez questioned claims by school officials that they did not know where Martinez lived, calling them “irresponsible”, noting that the Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources would have this information readily available.
Sanchez noted that the New Rochelle Police Department denied that they had been contacted by the school district. New Rochelle Police Detective Captain Joseph Schaller later told Talk of the Sound that had the New Rochelle Police Department been contacted about Martinez by the District they would have immediately connected the disappearance of Martinez to the mother’s complaint about Martinez which she had made a few days prior and had discounted as a “he said-he said” case.
The mother’s complaint was made after the mother reviewed mobile phone records for her son’s phone which showed numerous phone calls and text messages between her son and Martinez. During a chance encounter at a Pelham pizza restaurant, the mother requested that if Martinez was going to contact her son that he notify the parents first. Martinez denied communicating with her son. Martinez was exposed when the mother called Martinez from her son’s phone and hung up. Moments later, Martinez called the number back expecting to reach the boy and was surprised to be confronted by the mother. He resigned that weekend and disappeared.
On March 23rd, the mother of the victim made a formal complaint to New Rochelle Police, producing a copy of the Talk of the Sound article from March 18th.
On March 24th, New Rochelle police managed to lure Martinez into a meeting with them at which point he was taken to the New Rochelle police headquarters and questioned by police. Martinez resisted at first but eventually admitted to raping the 14-year old student in his office but sought to characterize the rape as “consensual sex”. Martinez was arrested and charged with Sexual Molestation-2nd Degree, accused of oral sex and sexual contact with a 14-year old student at Isaac Young Middle School up until June 2010.
On March 25th, New Rochelle Police held a press conference to announce the arrest of Martinez.
Again, keep in mind, that from March 13th until his arrest on March 24th, as Organisciak and members of senior leadership in the District are disavowing any knowledge of why Martinez disappeared, there are a dozen people including Organisciak, Bongo, Robinson Delion and Petrone who know about the prior reports of sexual abuse from 2010 and our report from the week before that he was confronted about sexual abuse by a parent, a report that was by then widely known.
With the benefit of hindsight, it is clear that Organisciak lied in his public statements and authorized Nieves and Costiglio to make false statements that he approved under their names with the likely input and approval of Jeffrey Kehl. We also have credible reports that emails to Organisciak from Delion and Bongo and possibly others were purged from the District email system.
The question remains, will Jose Martinez continue to skate by, or will the Westchester County District Attorney and Kings County District Attorney sort out their bureaucratic differences and lock up Martinez once and for all.
Talk of the Sound again began looking into Martinez whereabouts after receiving an alert in June from the New York State Unified Court System website for Case 054080/2011 for an Appearance Date on June 30, 2014. This is the civil lawsuit brought by Martinez’ victim against the City School District of New Rochelle. This was the first alert received on this case since it was filed in 2011. The case has been sealed so records are not available for download off the court web site (or otherwise).
The City School District is represented by attorneys from O’Connor McGuinness Conte Doyle Oleson Watson & Loftus, LLP which bills itself as “one of the oldest and most respected insurance defense law firms in the New York metropolitan area”.
Martinez’ victim is represented by Meagher & Meagher, P.C. which bills itself as “one of New York’s leading ligation firms and one of the largest boutique litigation firms in Westchester County”.
According to the web site, Christopher B. Meagher, “achieved two record breaking verdicts in Westchester County that to date are the still the first and second highest medical malpractice verdicts in Westchester’s history” and “achieved New York State’s largest, and the nation’s second largest, dental malpractice verdict.
On Monday, August 25, 2014 I filed a request before Judge Alan D. Scheinkman, Administrative Judge for the New York State Supreme Court in White Plains, NY. requesting that I be granted access to the records in this case.
I am hereby requesting that I be allowed to access to the records in this case and to cover the court proceedings with the understanding that I will not publish or otherwise make known the identity of the victim or his family.
I do not take such obligations lightly and would respect the will of the court with regard to keep certain information confidential.
I hope you will give my request serious consideration so that I might better inform the public about this important case which has significant ramifications for the entire New Rochelle community but in particular children in the New Rochelle schools, their parents, staff and New Rochelle taxpayers who bear the cost of this civil proceeding and any judgement or settlement that may result.
I am currently awaiting a response.
However, on Thursday September 4, 2014, the City School District of New Rochelle filed a Motion to Dismiss. This could eventuate the first public hearing in this case.
If so, Talk of the Sound intends to be present.
PREVIOUS REPORTING BY TALK OF THE SOUND ON JOSE MARTINEZ
Where is Former New Rochelle Schools Administrator, Level 2 Sex Offender Jose Martinez? (06/26/2014)
Paul Supports Jose Martinez!! Apoyo Para Jose Martinez!!! (01/31/2012)
New Rochelle Board of Education President Issues Vague Denials in Jose Martinez Child Rape Case (12/05/2011)
Former New Rochelle Assistant Principal Jose Martinez Sentenced: Time Served, Registered Sex Offender, Probation (10/16/2011)
GUILTY!: Former New Rochelle School Principal, Now Convicted Child Rapist, Jose Martinez Released After Plea Deal (07/22/2011)
Martinez Bail Reduction Denied in White Plains, Waives Appearance in New Rochelle (04/15/2011)
Organisciak Involved in Jose Martinez and Donna Henry Cover Up? (04/07/2011)
Teachers Union President Says Trust in New Rochelle Schools “Badly Shaken” by Allegations against Jose Martinez (04/05/2011)
Jose Martinez Court Appearance Today in New Rochelle City Court (04/05/2011)
Should Jefferson and Isaac Parents Trust Talk of the Sound as a Source of Information? (03/31/2011)
Audio from New Rochelle Police Press Conference on Arrest of Jose Martinez Friday March 24, 2011 (03/28/2011)
New Rochelle F.U.S.E. Union President Martin Daly Comments on Martinez Arrest (03/27/2011)
Anthony Bongo and Richard Organisciak Reach Out to New Rochelle’s Isaac E. Young Staff in the Jose Martinez Aftermath (03/27/2011)
BREAKING NEWS: New Rochelle Police Arrest Jose Martinez, Recently Resigned Assistant Principal of Jefferson School (03/25/2011)
Miscues again by the School Leadership (03/22/2011)
New Assistant Principal at the Jefferson Elementary School in New Rochelle Abruptly Resigns, Disappears (03/18/2011)
Why was Jose Martinez not fired?
So, if senior district administration, senior building administration and board members knew about the sexual molestation allegations against Jose Martinez, why didn’t they just fire him? One of the topics that was discussed at the time that Jose was initially arrested was that his resignation from Jefferson Elementary School was not his first attempt to resign. Some in the community had discussed that Jose had tried to resign at least once before while he was the Administrative Dean at Isaac E. Young Middle School. It was said that his resignation was not accepted. Furthermore, that he was convinced to not resign. PROJECT SAVE—SAFE SCHOOLS AGAINST VIOLENCE IN EDUCATION could be a possible explanation on why he was not fired and/or not allowed to resign:
http://www.nyscenterforschoolsafety.org/files/filesystem/save_summary.pdf
13. Prohibiting Silent Resignations
• Ends practice of allowing person to resign rather disclose allegations of child abuse.
• Class E. felony, punishable by up to four years in prison, civil penalty not to exceed $20,000.00 for those superintendents who allow employee to resign under these circumstances.
• Individuals who in good faith comply with the reporting requirements will be entitled to immunity from any civil or criminal liability that might otherwise result from such actions.