City, Neighbors Take Action Against Martinez

A University Park woman awaiting trial on prostitution and felony drug charges recently had her children taken away and is facing possible eviction.

Cynthia Martinez, 45, was arrested on Jan. 17, after police pulled her over and allegedly found one pill of what police believe to be an amphetamine.

Following the arrest, officials from University Park and the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services became involved. On Wednesday, UP city attorney Robert Dillard sent a letter to the owners of the Fondren Drive home that Martinez rents, Don and Ellaine Stanford of Flower Mound.

“On behalf of the City of University Park, we hereby demand on you to cause the common nuisance described herein to be abated by whatever means you have available to you,” the letter reads. “You are advised that your failure to do so within twenty-one days after the date of this letter will result in suit being filed against you personally.”

The house could be declared a “common nuisance” under Chapter 25 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies, Dillard wrote, and failure to remove the nuisance could result in the inability to rent the home for one year.

In addition to the letter from University Park, the Stanfords were served notice Monday by an attorney retained by 30 property owners in the 2800 and 2900 blocks of Fondren. The letter includes a litany of indiscretions that have allegedly occurred at the home in recent years, including drug and alcohol activity, individuals sleeping in mattresses in the backyard, and an alleged drug overdose at the property in December.

“I have been instructed to file suit against you within ten days from the date hereof unless you have taken immediately action to abate the nuisance including, but not limited to, evicting the tenant and all the occupants of the Property,” the letter reads.

Calls to the attorney who filed the neighbors’ complaint were not returned. An e-mail to Ellaine Stanford was not returned.

Meanwhile, Martinez’s two teenage children were removed from the home by Child Protective Services on Tuesday, according to CPS spokeswoman Marissa Gonzales. Martinez’s 15 year-old daughter is in foster care, but her 16-year-old son is not, Gonzales said Thursday.

Martinez was arrested in September 2009 for prostitution, after a vice officer said she offered an “upgrade” during a massage at her home. The charge was her second arrest for prostitution in 2009; the other happened in May in a Dallas hotel. In an interview with Park Cities People that year, she denied both charges.

According to Dallas County court records, neither case has concluded, though the September 2009 prostitution charge was recently transferred to a different court. Martinez was also charged with offering massages without a license for that incident.

Martinez’s house gained additional local notice on Dec. 17, 2010, when 20-year-old Warren Montgomery Merrill was found dead there. Toxicology reports are still pending, and may not be ready for another few weeks, according to the Dallas County medical examiner.

By Bradford Pearson Jan. 28, 2011 | 10:52 am | 12 Comments | Comments RSS
12 comments to "City, Neighbors Take Action Against Martinez"
  1. Jk @ January 28, 2011 at 11:26 am
    Glad those neighbors and city officials aren’t underachievers!!

  2. girlmom @ January 28, 2011 at 11:28 am
    IT’S ABOUT TIME!! Thank you City of UP!

  3. Lauren @ January 28, 2011 at 1:22 pm
    Would love follow up on the kids, to know that they have been placed in some type of safe situation. I’m sure that their lives have been tough.

  4. Gringo Bling @ January 28, 2011 at 1:31 pm
    I’m glad she’s not my neighbor and I’m not an attorney, but I kind of question the threatening action that the city is taking against the landlords of the house. Now that her kids have been taken away and are presumably not in HP schools, I doubt there is much incentive for her to put up a fight to stay in the house.

  5. Avid Reader @ January 28, 2011 at 3:24 pm
    @Gringo, You may be right, but at this point all options need to be examined. The landlords obviously didn’t care about all the other shenanigans that went down at the house so maybe being served the legal papers will open their eyes and force their hand if she did decide to stay for some reason.

  6. sally @ January 28, 2011 at 5:21 pm
    the poor children!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!awful!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  7. Eloise @ January 28, 2011 at 5:21 pm
    Just because the kids have been “taken away”, does that mean they are not in HP schools? I would hate to think that they would be punished for whatever her mom may or may not be doing.

    Or do other, more respectable parents think her kids are a bad influence on their little angels?

  8. MK @ January 28, 2011 at 6:01 pm
    Man, I feel bad for her kids. They’re at such a difficult age anyway and with all their mother’s issues being public knowledge, I’m sure they’ve had a terrible time of it. I’d like to hope that their HPHS peers have been kind and supportive…I just can’t imagine having a “role model” parent who sets the bar so very low. Such a shame; I’m glad the city finally intervened for the sake of the neighbors and her children.

  9. DemBones @ January 28, 2011 at 10:12 pm
    @Eloise.

    The daughter has been in a DISD high school this academic year. Maybe she was with the family that has just become her foster home.

    As of the beginning of the current semester, the son was still at HPHS. I don’t know if that changed since Tuesday.

  10. praying @ January 30, 2011 at 6:28 pm
    Prayers for the children. May God bless them and keep them safe in grace, strength, peace, wisdom and love.

  11. Bensa @ January 30, 2011 at 8:58 pm
    She’s a close friend of mine. Leave her alone.

  12. Avid Reader @ February 3, 2011 at 12:31 pm
    @Bensa, Maybe as a friend of her’s you can help her get her act together.

Leave a Reply