Ray Martinez, the former V.I. Police Commissioner on trial this week facing charges of wire fraud, bribery, money laundering and obstruction of justice, will tell a federal judge on Wednesday whether he intends to testify in his own defense.
After federal prosecutors rested their case against Martinez and former V.I. Management and Budget Director Jenifer O’Neal Tuesday afternoon, U.S. District Court Judge Mark Kearney reminded the defendants of their rights either to testify in their own defense or invoke their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. O’Neal signaled that she would not take the stand.
Martinez said he needed more time to speak with his attorneys, Miguel Oppenheimer and Juan Martos De Juan. If Martinez does testify, O’Neal’s attorney will have the opportunity to call more witnesses and present more evidence in her defense.
The parties rested after four days of witness testimony and evidence presented by the United States, which charged Martinez and O’Neal with taking in thousands of dollars in kickbacks from a former government contractor and career felon, David Whitaker. Taking the stand Thursday, Whitaker stolidly answered U.S. Justice Department attorney Alex Dempsey’s questions about recorded phone calls and in-person meetings, text conversations, bank statements and other evidence the United States presented.
Oppenheimer began cross-examining Whitaker on Friday, and attorney Dale Lionel Smith finished his own cross-examination on behalf of O’Neal on Monday.
Throughout the trial, attorneys for the defendants have repeatedly sought to tar Whitaker as an unreliable witness due to his lengthy criminal history and prior convictions. Whitaker began cooperating with federal investigators in September 2023 after they approached him about a fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program loan and about his company’s supposed finding of recording devices in multiple Virgin Islands government offices. Whitaker has admitted that he planted most of the bugs himself and “found” them to secure work with the V.I. Police Department for his company, Mon Ethos Pro Support.
On Tuesday, jurors heard from the law enforcement side when the United States put Kiernan Whitworth, an FBI special agent, on the stand.
Whitworth testified that he was the case agent who handled Whitaker during the bureau’s probes into public corruption in the U.S. Virgin Islands. He recounted the FBI’s initial interest in Whitaker — spurred by the “open case file” related to bugged government offices and, later, a series of payments to the former police commissioner and his wife, Diana Martinez. Asked about the trustworthiness of people who have been confronted with evidence of their own crimes, Whitworth said cooperating witnesses are “the most effective way to gather evidence.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Cherrisse Amaro (nee Woods) walked Whitworth through the FBI’s investigation, asking questions about what directions, if any, they gave to Whitaker. Whitworth testified that Whitaker was instructed to sit back and “if there was a scheme to play out — let that scheme play out.” Amaro also asked Whitworth about O’Neal’s involvement and reintroduced a Jan. 20, 2024, text exchange between Whitaker and O’Neal in which the former asked if a $216,000 invoice had been processed.
“Ray may never speak to us again if we leave before he gets the 70k for his food shop,” Whitaker texted, adding that Martinez would be even more mad if he found out about “Encore” and “the game” — an apparent reference to the Encore Boston Harbor luxury resort where Whitaker and Martinez stayed during three trips to Boston.
“lol,” O’Neal replied. “I’ll check with my staff.”
The prosecution also showed jurors a text O’Neal subsequently sent to OMB’s federal grants manager, Jamie Gaston.
“If you guys have ARPA payments pending to be processed, please get them entered so they can make Tuesday’s check run,” O’Neal allegedly wrote.
Gaston offered brief testimony Tuesday regarding her role at OMB.
After the United States rested, Martinez’s attorneys called Anthony Thomas — a former V.I. Property and Procurement commissioner who later worked for Whitaker’s company, Mon Ethos Pro Support, and who now works as chief administrative officer for the V.I. Water and Power Authority — to the stand. Thomas offered spare testimony regarding his role in finding work for Mon Ethos through the Virgin Islands government’s procurement portal, the unfortunately-named “GVIBuy.”
Asked by Dempsey if it would be appropriate for someone to give a commissioner money in exchange for a contract, Thomas said no.
“It goes against the principles of public finance and ethics, and it’s fraud,” he said.
Martinez’s attorneys also called the former commissioner’s former assistant, Police Sgt. Ludrick Thomas to the stand. The latter Thomas testified that Martinez was a “hands-on” commissioner who “led from the front” and that the digital forensic services Mon Ethos provided were “superb.”
St. Croix Source
Local news