PHOENIX — A former Phoenix police officer has pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual abuse involving crimes he committed in 2022 while on duty.
Michael Feliciano Martinez, 34, agreed to the plea deal in court Friday, which will include some prison time and at least 10 years of probation. At the end of the hearing, the judge ordered Martinez to be placed into custody without bond. The former police officer was removed from the courtroom in handcuffs.
Martinez worked for the Phoenix Police Department from 2019 to 2022.
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Both sex abuse charges involve women Martinez encountered while working in the Cactus Park precinct in March 2022. According to police reports, one woman reported that Martinez stopped her at a hotel and took pills out of her pocket on March 31, 2022. She told investigators that Martinez touched her genital area under the guise of an official police search. He was placed on desk duty during that investigation.
Another woman said she was sexually abused when Martinez searched her and her belongings in a laundromat parking lot on March 23 or 24, 2022. However, she did not report the crime to Phoenix Police until after she saw Martinez on the news for a prostitution arrest later that year.
Martinez resigned from the department in October 2022 after being arrested for solicitation of a prostitute. Authorities made the connection while investigating the murder of the prostitute. Jennifer Beede, 39, was found dead inside a suitcase abandoned in a desert area. Two other people were charged with her murder.
Martinez is scheduled to be sentenced on May 1. At that time, the judge will determine the length of his prison sentence. The plea deal indicated that the presumptive sentence for sexual abuse is 1.5 years.
