Photo of Anthony Martinelli courtesy City of Des Moines
By Nicholas Johnson

A Des Moines Municipal Court judge has agreed to allow city councilmember Anthony Martinelli to have supervised visits with his 1-year-old son in spite of allegations that he assaulted the child’s mother in front of the child in December 2020.

Judge Pauline Freund modified one of two no-contact orders Thursday (Dec. 2, 2021) to allow Martinelli to see his child in the presence of a third-party adult, likely Martinelli’s mother, who has helped the child’s mother care for the child since Martinelli was arrested Oct. 22 on six domestic violence-related charges stemming from three separate incidents dating to December 2020.

The second order barring Martinelli from contacting the mother of his child remains in effect despite a request made Thursday in court by the child’s mother to drop both orders.

“I’m not in danger and I haven’t been,” the child’s mother told Judge Freund. “I want to get my family back together.”

Martinelli, who did not appear in court Thursday, was represented by his attorney, Gina Buskirk of Puget Law Group. A pre-trial hearing scheduled for Thursday was pushed to Jan. 20 to allow for ongoing negotiations between Buskirk and attorney Abraham Ritter, a conflict prosecutor handling the case for the city.

“It looks like we may have a resolution at the time of the next hearing,” Ritter told the court Thursday.

Martinelli pleaded not guilty Oct. 25 to the charges against him – including fourth-degree assault, reckless endangerment, two counts of harassment, exposing children to domestic violence and interfering with reporting domestic violence.

According to court documents, the mother of Martinelli’s child had told her mother, who lives out of state, about the three separate incidents. Following the third incident, in August, the child’s grandmother contacted Des Moines police.

Upon Martinelli’s arrest, Mayor Matt Pina released a statement encouraging Martinelli to resign his seat on the city council. Martinelli has not done so and told The Waterland Blog on Thursday that he does not plan to.

In a 5-1 vote Nov. 18, the council formally censured Martinelli in light of the allegations against him, removing him from his committee assignments – the Ad Hoc Franchise Committee, and the Public Safety and Emergency Management Committee – through Dec. 31, 2021.

Councilmember JC Harris opposed the censure, while Martinelli, whose term runs through 2023, was absent during the Nov. 18 meeting.

Nicholas Johnson (he/him) is an award-winning writer, editor and photographer who grew up in Boulevard Park, graduated from Highline High School and studied journalism at Western Washington University. Send news tips, story ideas and positive vibes to [email protected].

 

13 replies on “Des Moines court allows councilmember Martinelli to see child in spite of domestic violence allegations”

    1. Hele, what “report” are you referring to? Politically Martinelli does not seem that important to warrent a political attack does he?
      My medical experience is that often the abused partner will enter into a state of denial of the abuse stating “he loves me”…
      The seriousness of the allegations, as in Coumo in New York, are enough that he should resign.
      Concerning the charges of abuse, I think we should let the court of law decide if this is “bunk”.

      1. How is a police report political? We’re the police not called multiple times? We’re reports on a few of the incidents not filed? What’s concerning is the content of some of those text messages. Withholding rent because you know there’s a Covid hold on pursuing back rents is something that should also be looked into. That landlord, if it’s true, should be pissed. There’s just something not on the level about any of this. Most regular folk don’t have these issues. I wonder what the ex-wife thinks of all of this.

      2. How is a police report political? We’re the police not called multiple times? We’re reports on a few of the incidents not filed? What’s concerning is the content of some of those text messages. Withholding rent because you know there’s a Covid hold on pursuing back rents is something that should also be looked into. That landlord, if it’s true, should be pissed. There’s just something not on the level about any of this. Most regular folk don’t have these issues. I wonder what the ex-wife thinks of all of this.

        1. no police were not called multiple times. They weren’t called for any of the supposed incidences. this all started when victim’s out of state mom contacted police and then there was an arrest almost 2 months later based on no evidence at all.

          of course its political when the mayor had a press release sent before he was even booked. the prosecutor recused herself but only after taking part in martinelli’s arraignment and holding onto it for a month. the judge was smart enough to recuse herself right away even before araignment.

          1. you seem to have a lot of inside knowledge of the incident. So then the various text messages between the perp, victim and mother have all been fabricated? The words used by the victim regarding intentionally witholding rent from their landlord. Those were all fabricated and doctored?

      3. Plus DM PD sent the police report to Tukwila PD to investigate to avoid a perceived conflict of interest. I doubt multiple municipalities are conspiring against him. Per the report this was not all based on the victim’s mother’s words, they interviewed the victim. It’s concerning to see what appears to be a deliberate misinformation attempt regarding this case.

        1. Marta the victim has said on social media that she denied everything when talking to the police And told them she did not feel unsafe at all and she denied any offer for support. If that is the truth it make sense why the report did not include a transcript from their conversation with her but did include the transcript when they talked to her mom.

  1. I agree that it is very common for an abused partner to defend the abuser and to protect them.
    Batterers are very good at making victims believe that the abuse is their fault. Victims often believe that if they caused the violence, they can also stop it. … A survivor may return to the abuser because that’s the person she the survivor fell in love with, and she believes his promises to change. Abusers often “live bomb” the victim after the abuse and always promis it won’t happen again.
    I was abused by an ex spouse who was s police officer.. Often he would come home from A domestic violence call and tell me how sweet and kind the woman was and comment on how they couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to hurt her. The implication was I wasn’t sweet and kind and that’s why I was being abused, this is typical gaslighting and very common in abusive relationships.

  2. This guy should leave the council! Hitting a woman in the face, in the stomach, pushing her and then threatening to kill her and the baby twice, having the police at his house multiple times, come on, he needs to be forced to resign! Every bit of his attendance at the council meetings is childish and goofy anyway, get rid of him!

  3. Waiting to see what they accuse JC of next. This council has been against those 2 the entire time. Hate to say it but it is 100% true.

Comments are closed.