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A former police officer in Florida who was convicted of forcing a teenage boy and girl to strip naked during a traffic stop to avoid arrest was set to begin a 10-year prison sentence last week.
Michael Martinez, who served as a Miccosukee Police officer, was found guilty of extortion and unlawful compensation in 2019.
FLORIDA MAN ALLEGEDLY AMBUSHED OFFICER OUTSIDE POLICE HQ, WRESTLED FOR HIS GUN
Martinez was out of appeals Thursday morning and handcuffed in a Broward County courtroom to begin his sentence, FOX7 Miami reported.
In August 2016, teens Remy Riley and her then-boyfriend Kyle Shoulta, now in their 20s, were driving from Tampa to Fort Lauderdale to attend a concert when Martinez pulled them over for running a stop sign on Alligator Alley near the Miccosukee Reservation.
The former officer had threatened to arrest the teens on drug and alcohol possession charges after finding marijuana and alcohol in the car. However, Martinez then offered Riley and Shoulta a deal — run naked and avoid jail.
Booking photo for Michael Martinez after being found guilty of forcing a young woman and a young man to run naked to avoid arrest. (Broward County Sheriff's Office)
"I was given a choice of go to jail or run, so I took the choice to run naked," Shoulta testified in 2019, according to the station.
Martinez had then told the teens to follow him to a secluded location.
"I took my pants off. I took my shirt off," Riley told the jury during the 2019 trial. "I kind of looked at him like, ‘Is this enough?’ He’s like, ‘That’s it?’"
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The jury also heard Riley say that after she took off her underwear and bra, Martinez was "kind of like, ‘Move your hands away from your body so I can see,’" according to the station.
A prosecution spokesman at the time told the Florida Sun-Sentinel Martinez also solicited Riley for a sex act.
Martinez was fired a year after the incident and will now serve 10 years in prison.
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