Longtime court guardian set to retire

Many people wonder if they could last a day in jail, but Beverly Martinez has gone above and beyond what most people would consider a long stint in the slammer.

At the end of the month, the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office sergeant will retire after 28 years, with a decade spent as head of court security.

Those who have worked with Martinez say she plays a vital role in making sure prisoners reach their destinations, keeping the halls of justice safe, and helping make sure the jail runs smoothly.

Martinez joined the detention center staff after working as a dispatcher. She wasn’t sure she would last long at the job, but ended up sticking with it.

“I came to the jail because I enjoyed working for the Sheriff’s Office,” Martinez said. “I’ve liked the work. I like dealing with the people. It just worked out really well for me.”

In her everyday duties, Martinez helps organize transport to prisoners in and out of the jail to facilities across the state. In a two-day span in February, nine inmates were shipped out and four were shipped in from other facilities. She rarely makes the trips herself these days, but she sometimes does.

Transporting people is one of Martinez’s least favorite tasks, although she has gotten to see some interesting things during those duties.

She has taken women inmates to get ultrasounds of their unborn children. In one instance she stood guard over an inmate who was having robotic surgery done. She got to watch the whole procedure.

Martinez also keeps track of every one of the more than 100 inmates’ court schedules and makes notes about what happens when each inmate has a hearing. It’s her job to know when the inmates have hearings and when they are done with court and can be released.

Martinez can be seen taking notes on a small piece of paper when in a courtroom about what happened in an inmate’s case. She and three detention officers cover four courtrooms in use at the Flathead County Justice Center. The officers are there to help keep the peace and get inmates from point A to point B safely.

“If somebody is coming up there and they want to cause a ruckus and they see a uniformed officer, they quickly change their mind,” Martinez said. “It’s a strong deterrent.”

Martinez was one of three officers to receive lifesaving badges a few years ago for their efforts to detain a man who brought a knife to court and stabbed himself after his bond was denied.

“He said, ‘I’m not going back to jail and so he pulled out his pocket knife and was going to stab himself in the stomach,” Martinez said. “One of my court security officers and myself kept himself from harming himself. He did harm himself, but not seriously as he would have if we had just left him alone.”

Martinez said that while some inmates are harder to deal with than others, by and large most are cooperative.

“I’ve always gone by the premise that I will treat these people as well as they allow me to,” Martinez said. “If you treat me with respect, I treat you with respect. If you want to call me names and be uncooperative then I turn up the seriousness of how I treat you.”

Martinez said inmates usually like her because she is the one who helps guide them to and from their court dates and get them along their way. More than once she has had former inmates come up to her in public and give her a hug, thank her or say hello.

Aaron Brown is the officer who has been training to take Martinez’s place at the end of the month. Martinez said she has faith he will do a good job, but Brown said he has been surprised to find out all that Martinez does. In addition to working with the inmates, Martinez also orders all supplies for the jail and commissary.

“Huge shoes,” Brown said of the hole Martinez is leaving behind. “I had no idea how much she did until I started doing it, and it just keeps increasing. ‘You do this, too? And this, and this and this? It’s crazy.’”

Flathead District Court Administrator Marcy Hall said Martinez will be missed.

“She has built relationships literally in every department in the Justice Center and many outlying agencies in the course of her job duties in the detention center,” Hall said. “She knows a lot of people and she has been very successful at building good relationships. She always knows the right person to call.”

Hall said Martinez’s personality has a lot to do with her success.

“She is genuine when it comes to her dealings with people,” Hall said. “She is just a good-hearted, gentle, respectful person.”

Those are qualities Martinez will be taking with her when she leaves.

She intends to spend time with good friends, her children and grandchildren. She also looks forward to continuing to bowl and watching the Denver Broncos play.

“I’m looking forward to it,” she said.

Reporter Megan Strickland can be reached at 758-4459 or mstrickland@dailyinterlake.com.