The former Baltimore City police officer who pled guilty to a single charge of theft may have a new trial, according to prosecutor Elizabeth Ridder.
Dorian Martin had been charged with robbing three Hispanic men in Fells Point, but had entered into a plea bargain with the States Attorneys’ office. Martin had allegedly mugged Felix Rivera, Hector Cortia, and James Roy of over $900 in 1998. Martin was in uniform and on duty at the time. The plea bargain gave him a three-year suspended sentence, 120 days of home detention, and a bill of $600 for restitution.
However, in an unrelated case, the Maryland Court of Appeals issued a decision this week which declared such
Ritter said that since home detentions are illegal, detention was no longer a legal punishment, her office would be issuing a request to the court on Monday that the plea bargain be struck down. Martin was scheduled to be sentenced on Monday at the Clarence Mitchell Courthouse.
Beltran Navarro, an organizer of the group Hispanics of Baltimore, said that the community was angry because Ritter should have known about the upcoming ruling. He labeled it “a gaffe in the State’s Attorney’s Office.” He also said that the victims were hurt because “there would be no closure.”
Navarro did acknowledge that many within the Hispanic community believed the original plea bargain was too lenient. In the past, he had called for full restitution for the victims, rather than jail time for Martin.