[CO] Bruised-necked Officer Huffman's normal victim tug-of-war set Officer Martinez free and caused her own arrest

...Deputy District Attorney Mike Fisher told the jury that Huffman was experiencing an internal “tug of war” over the incident, something not uncommon in domestic violence incidents...

Colorado Springs Police Officer Sydney Huffman didn't want to admit she broke her own restraining order the night she ended up with bruises on her neck being treated in a hospital. She lied, making up another scenario. The truth and the lie crashed into each other, Manitou Springs Police Officer Jarrott Martinez was acquitted, and now it is she who is under arrest.

...Sydney Rose Huffman said she later felt bad about agreeing to meet Jarrott Paul Martinez that night at a time when she had a restraining order against him. “If I hadn’t met him, none of this would have happened...

Excerpt from last year before Martinez's acquittal:

...The detective who later took Huffman’s report at Memorial Hospital said he saw bruise marks on her neck. She was coughing and had difficulty swallowing and turning her head, he said. Police said Martinez had a history of violence toward Huffman and other family members, including three previous strangulation incidents. Huffman said there were also unreported incidents in which Martinez held firearms to her head and to her father’s head. She also told police that Martinez had previously threatened to kill both of them and added “that if she ever called police he would kill her before the police would arrive”...

There's something very sad and unsettling between the lines for victims who are also officers.

CURRENT NEWS:

COLORADO SPRINGS OFFICER HUFFMAN FACES CHARGE OF ATTEMPTING TO INFLUENCE A PUBLIC SERVANT

The Associated Press

June 11, 2011

[Excerpts] A Colorado Springs police officer is due in court Monday to be advised she faces a charge of attempting to influence a public servant. Prosecutors say Sydney Huffman was arrested Friday. Formal charges haven't been filed yet... 24-year-old Huffman told police last year that her estranged boyfriend Jarrott Martinez, who is a former Manitou Springs officer, had strangled her after trying to talk her out of testifying against him in a restraining order case. Martinez' lawyer contends Huffman lied about the incident. Martinez was acquitted of charges earlier this year... [Full article here]

SPRINGS POLICE OFFICER ARRESTED ON FELONY CHARGE

The Colorado Springs Gazette

Joel Millman and Tom Roeder

June 10, 2011

[Excerpts] A Colorado Springs police officer who accused a former Manitou Springs cop of assault last year has been arrested for allegedly lying to authorities. The 4th Judicial District Attorney’s Office announced the arrest of Springs police officer Sydney Huffman on Friday, saying she was held on investigation of attempting to influence a public servant. Huffman claimed to be the victim in a June 9, 2010 attack by former Manitou Springs policeman Jarrott Martinez... Now, authorities say Huffman, a decorated three-year veteran of the department may have misled investigators as the alleged victim in an unspecified a domestic violence case. Police declined to release details of the Huffman case, but the information they did release coincides with Huffman’s allegations against Martinez. Police say they learned of the issue on April 21, then turned over the investigation to the DA’s Office... The case against Martinez was hampered by inconsistencies in Huffman’s account. She first told police that Martinez pulled up behind her car and forced her into the parking lot, but later said she had agreed to meet him there. In court, Martinez defense attorney Daniel Deters told jurors that Martinez was not in the parking lot that night and Huffman lied about the entire incident... Huffman was held in the El Paso County jail Friday in lieu of a $20,000 bond on investigation of the Class 4 felony. She is on paid administrative leave pending the filing of formal charges... [Full article here]

NEW DETAILS EMERGE ABOUT ARRESTED OFFICER: A Springs police officer has been arrested on felony charges. The arrest involves two separate cases in which the officer may have lied.

KKTV

Jun 11, 2011

[Excerpts] ...11 News has obtained court records that show [Springs police officer Sydney] Huffman was the plaintiff in a restraining order and domestic abuse case year. The case involved former Manitou Springs officer Jarrott Martinez, who Huffman later accused of trying to strangle her. Martinez' lawyer maintained that Huffman lied about the incident; Martinez was acquitted of charges this year. CSPD said in a statement that the department began to question Huffman's story after the failed prosecution. "There's probably not a group of people more disappointed about this outside of any victims than the police department itself. We do want to let the community know that we're going to be honest and transparent," Colorado Springs Sgt. Steve Noblitt said... 11 News will continue to place calls to CSPD to get further information. [Full article here]

EXCERPTS FROM EARLIER ARTICLES:

EX-MANITOU SPRINGS COP ACCUSED OF STRANGLING FORMER GIRLFRIEND

The Colorado Springs Gazette

John C. Ensslin

August 11, 2010

[Excerpts] A former Manitou Springs police officer has been ordered to stand trial on charges that he strangled his ex-girlfriend and fellow officer after forcing her off the road in Colorado Springs. Jarrott Paul Martinez, 30, is accused of second-degree assault, intimidating a witness, false imprisonment and violating a restraining order in the June 9 incident... At the time, Martinez was a Manitou Springs officer. However, his lawyer indicated in June that he had left the force... [Sydney Rose Huffman] said they both parked. Martinez came over to her car and after a brief conversation she agreed to get into the cab of his pickup. Once inside, she said he activated the locks on the doors. Huffman said Martinez began to blame her for his financial problems and the possibility of him losing his job. He asked her not to testify in a pending misdemeanor case. To appease him, she agreed not to testify against him. When she tried to get out, Huffman said Martinez grabbed her by the neck with both hands. “I began to get dizzy and saw black dots,” she later told a Colorado Springs detective. “It felt as though my eyes were going to pop out of my head. I thought this was it. He would finally kill me and get away with it.” Huffman said she briefly blacked out. When she came to, she said Martinez began to cry, apologized for what he had done and leaned over to kiss her. She kicked him, got out of the truck and fled. The detective who later took Huffman’s report at Memorial Hospital said he saw bruise marks on her neck. She was coughing and had difficulty swallowing and turning her head, he said. Police said Martinez had a history of violence toward Huffman and other family members, including three previous strangulation incidents. Huffman said there were also unreported incidents in which Martinez held firearms to her head and to her father’s head. She also told police that Martinez had previously threatened to kill both of them and added “that if she ever called police he would kill her before the police would arrive.” Following a preliminary hearing Tuesday, 4th Judicial District Judge David L. Shakes found there was enough evidence for Martinez to be tried. The judge set a Jan. 11 trial date... [Full article here]

SPRINGS POLICE OFFICER CLAIMS EX-BOYFRIEND STRANGLED HER: Defendant was a Manitou cop at the time

The Colorado Springs Gazette

John C. Ensslin

January 31, 2011

[Excerpts] A Colorado Springs police officer testified Monday that her ex-boyfriend - who was then a Manitou police officer – strangled her in his pickup in a restaurant parking lot. But Sydney Rose Huffman said she later felt bad about agreeing to meet Jarrott Paul Martinez that night at a time when she had a restraining order against him. “If I hadn’t met him, none of this would have happened,” Huffman said... She had a gun in her holster at the time, but did not draw it. Deputy District Attorney Michael Fisher asked her why not. “I have no family. Jarrott’s all I had,” she said. “He’s not somebody that I’d try to fight. He’s no stranger to me. With him, I couldn’t do that.” Martinez’s lawyer Daniel Deters questioned Huffman about statements she gave to a Colorado Springs detective about two weeks after the incident. In those statements, Huffman said she wanted to help Martinez and “work out a plan of how we could do it.” When Deters asked what she meant by that, Huffman said she didn’t remember... [Full article here]

JURY ACQUITS EX-MANITOU COP ACCUSED OF ASSAULTING COP

The Colorado Springs Gazette

John C. Ensslin

February 03, 2011 2:21 PM

[Excerpts] A jury Thursday acquitted a former Manitou Springs police officer who’d been accused of strangling his ex-girlfriend, a Colorado Springs police officer. A nine-woman, three-man jury took about three hours to find Jarrott Paul Martinez not guilty of second-degree assault, intimidating a witness, false imprisonment and violating a restraining order in the June 9 incident involving Sydney Rose Huffman in a parking lot at 5430 E. Woodmen Ave. Martinez hugged his defense attorney Daniel Deters... “It’s a very gratifying victory to know that the defense evidence, such as it was, exonerated Mr. Martinez,” Deters said... The prosecution’s case, however, was complicated by the fact that Colorado Springs police later discovered that part of Huffman’s original account was not true. Initially, Huffman, 24, told a detective that Martinez had come up behind her car in his pickup and forced her to pull into the parking lot. Later police determined that they had agreed to meet there. Deputy District Attorney Mike Fisher told the jury that Huffman was experiencing an internal “tug of war” over the incident, something not uncommon in domestic violence incidents. “She doesn’t want people to know what happened to her,” Fisher said in his closing argument. “She doesn’t even want you to know.” But he urged the jury to focus on the physical evidence, particularly a photograph taken after she went to the hospital the next day with bruises on her neck. Fisher cited the testimony of one nurse who said in her opinion, “she (Huffman) could have died from what happened to her.” Deters told the jury his client was not in the parking lot that night and that the incident never happened... [Full article here]

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