The Kansas Commission on Judicial Conduct alleged multiple instances of unprofessionalism, prejudice and bias by Judge Martinez in a formal complaint filed on July 21.
The complaint laid out six accounts between 2024 and 2025 in which Martinez’s behavior allegedly appeared to violate ethical standards in the courtroom while serving as district judge.
Martinez denies all allegations and does not plan to publicly respond. But in a Facebook message in response to a query from KCUR, Martinez had the following response:
“As a sitting Judge it would not be right to try this in a public news forum,” Martinez wrote. “There are appropriate procedures that need to be followed according to my Judicial Rules of Conduct wherein a hearing will be held. I will be able to defend myself at that time and place.”
The formal complaint follows accusations from Wyandotte County District Attorney Mark Dupree. In a July 10 letter to Chief Judge Robert Burns, he asserted that he would no longer appear before Martinez, claiming Martinez has had a “lengthy pattern of inappropriate behavior” spanning the last eight years.
“The District Attorney's Office no longer finds Judge Martinez’s conduct to be tolerable or sustainable for appropriate legal practice,” Dupree wrote.
"While I deny all the allegations, it would be inappropriate for me to comment any further. As a sitting Judge it would not be right to try this in a public news forum."Judge Tony Martinez
The formal complaint
The complaint said Martinez often interrupted and spoke unprofessionally towards counsel officials during court hearings.
In one hearing in January 2025, the commission alleged that Martinez denied the plea agreement negotiated between prosecutors and defense attorneys and said he took cases with law enforcement officers more seriously than others.
The commission claimed that Martinez told the Public Defender Office that he “never follows a time-served or similarly favorable plea agreement when a law enforcement officer is the victim.”
Martinez allegedly estimated he deviates from a plea agreement four to five times a year, according to the complaint.
Martinez allegedly interrupted Senior Assistant Public Defender Lindsie Ford when she attempted to state her client’s case and suggested that she failed to advise her clients properly on court expectations.
After sentencing the defendant to 90 days, the judge allegedly also told the defendant that if they mess up, it would “make it harder for the next person that [their] attorney represents.”
Later that day, Chief Deputy Public Defender Kennae Grigsby told Martinez to direct his concerns about the defense attorney’s performance to management, rather than in open court. The complaint claimed the comment resulted in Martinez escalating the behavior, alleging that Martinez shouted at Grisby “to shut her mouth, sit down and that she respect him in his courtroom.”
The following day, according to the complaint, Martinez told a Black student intern who was also present at the hearing that Grisby’s behavior “perpetuated the stereotype of an angry Black woman.”
Martinez is up for retention and faces two opponents in the Aug. 4 primary. The next step for the complaint will be in the style of a trial, in which Martinez will have an opportunity to appeal if the commission rules against him.
