JAIL WON'T LET OFFICER INDICTED IN PERJURY SURRENDER

Deputy Police Chief Cerjio Martinez was turned away for the second day in a row Tuesday after he tried to surrender at the county jail to face perjury charges.

Martinez and his lawyer, Luis Aguilar, walked into the warrants office about 10:30 a.m. and walked out 15 minutes later. "We're trying to follow the law," Aguilar said.

Jail officials were unable to book Martinez because prosecutors had not submitted a required document, known as a capias, that was necessary to arrest the police officer and book him into jail.

District Attorney Jaime Esparza wouldn't comment on Martinez's status other than to say, "The Texas Rangers will execute the warrant at the appropriate time."

Buster Collins, the El Paso-based Texas Ranger brought in to assist police and prosecutors in their investigation into the leak of police documents to the news media, couldn't be reached for comment Tuesday.

Aguilar said he didn't know why Esparza would delay Martinez's arrest and called the move "nothing more than politics."

Martinez was indicted on two counts of perjury Thursday by a grand jury investigating the leak of the documents. Aguilar, who called the indictment "baseless," said he spent the whole day Monday trying to get his client booked so he could be released on $1,000 bond.

"We were refused again," he said after Tuesday's try.

Judge William Moody of the 34th District Court on Friday signed a capias, a court order to issue an arrest warrant for Martinez.

Esparza called in the Texas Rangers on July 31 to help the Police Department with its investigation into how the news media obtained law-enforcement documents detailing allegations that police Chief Carlos Leon's former administrative assistant, Officer Luis Cortinas, had ties to drug traffickers.

Aguilar said any law-enforcement officer, not just the Texas Rangers, could execute the warrant. He said he is filing a motion to hold the district attorney in contempt of court.

"It's not the Texas Rangers' investigation. It's Esparza's," Aguilar said. "He has two police officers monitoring every Texas Ranger wherever they go."

While at the jail Tuesday morning, Aguilar and Martinez walked past Collins, police white-collar crimes Detective Stan Hayes and Lt. David Norman, who is heading the Police Department's leak investigation.

No one stopped Martinez, Aguilar said.

Martinez was placed on administrative leave Friday by Leon. Aguilar said the indictment came while Martinez was taking a week off to care for his wife, who is undergoing cancer treatment.

The 34th District Court grand jury indictment alleges that Martinez lied when he made a notarized statement Aug. 5 saying that he had never heard anyone discuss the release of confidential information to the media and that he had never discussed releasing such information.

Aguilar said he doesn't know what evidence of perjury the district attorney's office presented the grand jury.

The grand jury met again Tuesday afternoon. Grand jury proceedings are secret.

If the case goes to trial, Aguilar said, Martinez "will not enter a guilty plea under any circumstances."