JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA
By Jacob Rodriguez and Destiny Johnson, WTLV (May 16, 2016)
New video released Monday shows jail beating victim Mayra Alejandra Martinez, 31, left on the ground, unconscious and unattended, for over 15 minutes before first-responders check on her.
She spends roughly 35 minutes outside the jail, in the new video, jawing with officers and waiting to be processed. The beating takes less than a minute, but Martinez is left on the ground as officers and jail staff stand around her for a full fifteen minutes.
That’s until EMTs arrive and spend the next few minutes reviving her. She remains on the ground, however, for another 20 minutes – the first responders leave after a little over ten minutes. The video ends without showing her entering the jail.
The officer who struck Martinez, Akinyemi Borisade, 26, was fired in late April and charged with simple battery. He was still on a probationary status with the organization.
Borisade can be seen hitting Martinez multiple times after she appears to kick him. Other officers watch him strike her, until another JSO officer taps him on the arm and he stops.
The Florida Times-Union also obtained dashcam video of the arrest at a gentleman’s club on University Boulevard. The video shows Borisade and another officer on top of a woman who is believed to be Martinez, repeatedly striking her.
Martinez was drinking at the club Wednesday afternoon and had reportedly become belligerent, an arrest report said. She was harassing patrons, according to the report. When officers told her she was being arrested, she started swinging.
That’s when Borisade allegedly took her to the ground and struck her in the back multiple times, the report said. In the dashcam video, you can see Borisade shove the woman’s face repeatedly into the concrete.
Watch the full dashcam video below, courtesy a reader of the Times-Union.
Borisade is charged with simple battery, a misdemeanor. Martinez has since been released from jail.
Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams spoke in a press conference on Friday about the open investigation concerning the incident.
Williams said that both videos were troubling and a cause for concern. “We don’t tolerate that type of activity. We have set that bar for professionalism, we’re working hard to make sure that we all maintain that,” he said.
There is a duty to report a crime that is seen, said Williams, and JSO is working to find out who are the officers who can be seen standing around in the jail video, seemingly not stopping the officer as he repeatedly strikes Martinez.
The investigation could take a couple of weeks to a month, according to Williams, but JSO is working to find out who the officers in the video work for, and will take disciplinary measures in accordance with policy.
However, the standard is that if a crime is happening, it should be reported and there is a duty of officers to step in.
The investigation continues as JSO looks to see if the right paperwork was filed in a timely manner and if the accounts of the attack corroborate each other. Williams also called for body cameras for officers, saying it would show officers doing good works 99 percent of the time, but help the investigation when things like this incident happen.
Borisade has had previous run-ins with the Sheriff’s Office. In 2008, he was arrested for petit theft after trying to steal from a Belk on the Arlington Expressway.
In 2011, an incident report from JSO asserts that he busted out a woman’s rear window on her car. Police said that they did not witness the incident and provided the victim with a state attorney’s card, which is standard policy.
Both incidents were misdemeanors, and neither would preclude him from being an officer when he was hired four years later.
Martinez said she is embarrassed at what happened and suffered from a broken wrist. She is now out of the hospital and has hired local attorney John Phillips and one other.
First Coast News tried to get in touch with Borisade, but he could not be reached for comment.