Salt Lake police used reasonable force in arrest that resulted in broken leg, amputation, DA says

SALT LAKE CITY — Two Salt Lake police officers used reasonable force when they arrested a woman and broke her leg in 2023, the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office concluded Friday.

The West Valley woman’s leg eventually had to be amputated.

Salt Lake police sued

Agnes Jean Martinez, 58, filed a lawsuit in federal court against the Salt Lake City Police Department and officers Lane Wolfenbarger and Paul Mullenax. After the lawsuit was filed last year, police released body camera video from the arrest and invoked an officer-involved critical-incident investigation.

The incident happened on Sept. 1, 2023. Wolfenbarger and Mullenax pulled Martinez over just after 8:30 p.m. at 425 W. 1700 South. In body-camera video, the officers indicate they are familiar with Martinez from prior dealings. During the stop, Wolfenbarger detected the odor of marijuana coming from Martinez’s car, prompting him to search it.

While searching the glove box, Wolfenbarger found a small amount of meth, according to the body camera video. He then walked back to where Martinez was standing and informed her that she was under arrest.

In the videos, Martinez, who had been cooperative with officers to that point, appears to be surprised that she is being arrested and tenses up as Wolfenbarger attempts to move her arms behind her back to place handcuffs on her.

Wolfenbarger tells her to stop resisting several times before saying he will “take you to the ground next … do you want to go to the ground? Relax your arms.”

“As Ms. Martinez continued trying to pull her arms forward, officer Wolfenbarger advised that they were going to take her to the ground next. They asked her if she wanted to go to the ground, and they continued giving commands to ‘stop’ and to ‘relax her arms.’ Officer Wolfenbarger then communicated to officer Mullenax that they would be taking her to the ground, and officer Wolfenbarger then placed his right leg next to Ms. Martinez’s left leg to trip her and pulled her toward him and down as officer Mullenax pushed Ms. Martinez toward officer Wolfenbarger and down to the ground. As Ms. Martinez went to the ground, her left leg became injured, and she began screaming,” District Attorney Sim Gill’s final report states.

“My leg!” she is heard screaming in body camera video.

“Her leg just broke,” Salt Lake officer reportedly told partner

An officer is heard telling his partner, “Her leg just broke.”

Mullenax further says in body camera video while talking to his partner, “I’m gonna be honest, now that I’m thinking about it, I might have actually felt her break, underneath when I went down,” according to the report.

When paramedics arrived, Mullenax told them, “We took her to the ground. Pretty sure he fell on the top part of her leg, like above the knee, on her left. I think I fell on the lower part. And it, now that I’m thinking about it, I might have heard a crack when we hit the ground,” according to the report.

Martinez was taken to a hospital. The report says, “Notably, the limited available medical information indicates that Ms. Martinez underwent multiple surgeries while hospitalized and was ultimately discharged on Sept. 13, 2023, with no concern for infection during her admission. She was subsequently brought to an emergency department with concern for infection on Sept. 26, 2023, following which she had a knee amputation.”

In his report, Gill stated that he believes the incident does fall under the definition of an officer-involved critical incident.

“While we believe that this case falls within the meaning of an officer-involved critical incident, we are unaware of any facts which would support a finding that the officers used any unlawful or unreasonable force during their efforts to arrest Ms. Martinez,” the report states, noting that the officers forced her onto the ground “only after she continued to actively resist arrest.”

“Based on the information before us, we believe that the officers responded reasonably based on the information known to them at the time and as the situation progressed,” the report concludes.

Martinez was charged in 3rd District Court with two counts of misdemeanor drug possession, possession of drug paraphernalia and interfering with an officer. In May, she pleaded guilty to one count of drug possession in exchange for the other charges being dropped. She was sentenced to time she had already served in jail and was placed on one year of probation.

Proceedings in the civil lawsuit were still ongoing as of Friday.

“This legal finding mirrors the outcome of our Internal Affairs review,” Salt Lake Police Chief Brian Redd said Friday. “The decision by the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office makes it clear there are no known facts supporting a finding that our officers used unlawful or unreasonable force during their efforts to arrest Ms. Martinez.

“While the investigation found no wrongdoing by our officers, we understand this was a difficult experience for Ms. Martinez and those close to her,” the Salt Lake police chief stated.