Report: Trial describes INS rep’s sexual mischief

Oscar Martinez, the representative of U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service to the CNMI, was accused by four agents of the U.S. Border Patrol Intelligence Unit of “inappropriate behavior” in an ongoing trial of a federal complaint filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The agents who testified on the alleged persistent inappropriate behavior by Mr. Martinez filed the civil-rights lawsuit seeking millions of dollars in back pay and missed promotions, according to an article published in the San Antonio Express on April 4, 2000.

The Tribune tried but failed to contact Mr. Martinez.

Nine years after the complaint was filed, the agents were finally given their day in court as they described in detail the behavior of Mr. Martinez which includes lewd gestures, constant barrage of sexual commentary and occasional groping, the news report said.

Ignacio Salazar, one of the agents, had told the federal court that Mr. Martinez “constantly wolf-whistled at agents and turned almost every conversation into a sexual innuendo,” according to the report.

This was the working environment described by Mr. Salazar at the Laredo Sector’s Intelligence Unit in the early 1990s. Mr. Martinez is not a defendant in the case and the trial is not about same-sex sexual harassment but his alleged vulgar actions was the focus of the argument of the plaintiff.

San Antonio Express said quoting the four agents that the superiors of Mr. Martinez did not do anything to stop the behavior and that they were even denied promotions after they filed the complaint with EEOC in March 1991.

The report said Mr. Salazar did not bring up the harassment accusation to Joe Garza, chief of the Laredo Border Patrol, and that he was “too embarrassed to confront his boss about his personal behavior.” He added that he thought Mr. Martinez would stop if he ignored him.

Assistant U.S. Attorney John Parker had told the court that Mr. Martinez had been fired from the Border Patrol but the agency was ordered to take him back, according to the news report.

Outside the courtroom, the San Antonio Express reported, Mr. Parker “implied before U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison that Martinez’s posting to Saipan was its own form of punishment.”

Mr. Parker maintained that the plaintiffs were not victims of retaliation. “As you go up in ranks, it becomes extremely competitive,” he said. “Every time they mention sexual harassment, they are trying to change the subject…They are trying to punish the Border Patrol for something that is not part of this lawsuit.”

The plaintiff’s statements had nevertheless centered on the alleged vulgar actions of Mr. Martinez.

In one incident in 1990, Mr. Salazar said, Mr. Martinez slid a ruler between his legs in the presence of other members of the intelligence unit inside their office. For months, the report said, his boss kept his distance after he cursed him.

“He had a problem with his sexuality, with his manhood. It was like he had no control over himself,” Mr. Salazar was quoted as saying in the article.

The news report said formal complaints were hindered by the fact that all the senior managers were close friends of Mr. Martinez who found his antics amusing. The four agents were ridiculed after the EEOC complaint was leaked, calling them “Oscar’s little girls.”