Bail reduction denied in alleged teacher groping, improper relationship case

By Rob D’Amico

Marfa

A district court judge denied a request to reduce bail for Juan Tarango Martinez—the Marfa High School teacher accused of an improper relationship and indecency with a 13-year-old girl—in a court hearing Thursday.

Martinez’s public defenders had asked for the reduction to $1,200, in part because they believe their defendant’s constitutional rights were violated with his arrest and because they asserted he posed no flight risk, his detainment on $170,000 bond was putting a financial hardship on his family and because he posed no safety threat to children in the area. Martinez was still in the Presidio County jail as of Friday.

A probable cause affidavit for Martinez’s arrest alleges the teacher fondled a 13-year-old girl on her thighs, buttocks and breasts, and the affidavit noted there is video of one of the incidents. 

Martinez faced complaints three years earlier from three students of his welding class who said Martinez showed the girls pictures of women on his phone, accompanied by lewd comments from him. “They were all really young girls in the photos,” a former student, who asked that her name not be used for privacy reasons, said.

Assistant District Attorney Bill Parham argued against any bond reduction—saying Martinez had violated the trust teachers should have with their students and that he still posed a risk to area students, no matter how many restrictions would be placed on his release. 394th District Judge Monty Kimball denied the bail reduction and put additional restrictions on Martinez if he did meet bail. 

Attorneys from Far West Texas Regional Public Defender—Steele Musgrove and James McDermott—told the court that there was no valid probable cause affidavit in the arrest warrant for Martinez, violating his rights. It’s unclear who submitted the affidavit to get a warrant, but Parham said it was a report with a narrative of the allegations instead of a sworn affidavit. Kimball directed authorities to retrieve the actual sworn affidavit, which Big Bend Sentinel had received shortly after his September 16 arrest, to resolve the issue.

Kimball said in court that he was signing off on additional search warrants in the case. Probable cause affidavits for those warrants have not been filed for public review in the Presidio County District Clerk’s Office as of Big Bend Sentinel’s deadline. But Parham said they involved Martinez’s phone. Prosecutors already have video from the victim’s phone as evidence of the improper relationship and indecency charges, he said.