Calvert County’s current State’s Attorney, Laura Martin has been involved with law enforcement for her entire professional career which began before finishing law school at American University. In a recent interview with TheBAYNET.com, the enigmatic chief prosecutor stated that her career began in Prince George’s County as a Deputy State’s Attorney.
When she moved to Calvert in 1994, Martin took a position in the State’s Attorney office under Riddle. “When Riddle left to take his position as Judge in 2005, the county appointed Greg Wells to the position,” said Martin. She indicated that after a few differences of opinion, Martin decided to withdraw from office and run for the position herself. Her first campaign was successful and she took office in Jan. of 2007.
“The first thing I did after taking office was to reinstate the Domestic Violence Unit.” Martin indicated that in Calvert, most murders stem from Domestic Violence and that the unit is specifically designed to prevent that kind of violence from occurring.
“Since we established the unit, we have only had one such murder and that was a special case, different from what we normally see,” said Martin.
The Domestic Violence Unit comes with specially trained prosecutors and victims advocates designed to predict escalating violence and to protect the victims against further harm. “We have budget so we can relocate a victim who we feel is in serious danger and the prosecutors are trained to take care of the suspects.”
Martin explained that the unit performs a ‘lethality assessment’ for each case and decides that if a victim is in danger of being murdered by the suspect and acts accordingly.
One of the things Martin is trying to establish in her next term as State’s Attorney is a similar unit that will be designed to focus on senior citizens and the crimes that they have done to them. She explained that a great deal of crime against seniors is that of financial fraud. “Most seniors have no one to turn to with the expertise to help them.” Martin followed that the understanding of the nature of the crime and devastation that accompanies financial fraud is very important to be able to help seniors through the ordeal.
Martin went on to explain that there is no centralized authority in place to assist seniors, but that with the creation of the new unit that would change. “It is just beginning and we have a ways to go, but that is a goal for the next term. We have a lot of seniors in Calvert who can use the help.”
As of this writing, Martin is running unopposed, but expects that situation can change anytime between now and the filing deadline of July 6. “If we have to have to campaign, we’re ready to do so,” said the Republican prosecutor.
Martin is married and has twin daughters who are both sophomores in college. “When I ran the first time, they were both juniors in high school and they learned a lot about the inner workings of a campaign and elections,” said Martin. When asked if either of her daughters were studying to follow in her footsteps in law enforcement, Martin laughed and said, “Not after seeing the long hours we have to put in to be effective at our jobs.”
Martin explained that she and her prosecutors are on call 24-hour-a-day and go to active crime scenes in order to assist law enforcement officers with investigations. “If they need warrants, subpoenas or anything that we have to review, we can take care of that quicker if we are at the scene. Martin stated that she personally visits all murder scenes and participates in all major case investigations.
For more information about the Calvert State’s Attorney Office, check the Web site here.
