Former VIPD Commissioner Ray Martinez, who appeared in V.I. District Court Friday on St. Thomas to answer federal bribery charges, has filed a civil suit against the man he alleges hatched a scheme with the FBI to land him there.
The suit, filed Friday afternoon on the V.I. Superior Court docket, claims David Whitaker — a convicted felon with a long history of fraud who befriended Martinez — began working with the FBI to implicate Martinez in criminal activity to reduce his own jail time for Paycheck Protection Program fraud during the pandemic, among other charges.
Whitaker subsequently entered a plea agreement with the federal government and will be sentenced April 7.
According to the lawsuit, the pair became acquainted in June 2022 when the V.I. Police Department hired Whitaker to investigate allegations of covert listening devices in V.I. government offices through his cybersecurity company, Mon Ethos Pro Support, which he no longer owns.
Whitaker reported finding 13 surveillance devices in the government offices and billed the VIPD for his “work,” but really had planted 12 of them himself, according to court documents in his case.
Martinez had also requested assistance on the case from the FBI and other federal law enforcement partners, his suit states, but declined to provide Mon Ethos’ report to them as he “wanted parallel investigations into the issues” with the devices and to avoid “cross contamination” of their work.
“The federal investigators were offended — it is believed that this may have caused the federal investigators to hatch a scheme to entrap Martinez,” according to the suit.
The bait was a restaurant Martinez was building near the hospital on St. Thomas called Don Felito’s, it says.
Whitaker proposed a business partnership for a media video series called the “Steak Out,” featuring retired law enforcement officers discussing closed cases while Martinez prepared meals, it says.
“The business partnership would consist of Whitaker assisting with funding for the necessary infrastructure, sourcing guests for the series, and handling media production,” according to the complaint.
“As the agreement specifically indicated, Whitaker’s role also encompassed contributions towards the physical build-out and equipment required for the restaurant. Mr. Whitaker’s extensive experience and connections in media production and his network of former federal agents would be invaluable to the project’s success,” it says.
Among equipment that Whitaker allegedly funded was a kitchen hood system that the FBI seized in a raid on Dec. 16 that his attorney, Michael Sheelsey, said in a motion for the equipment’s return was designed to embarrass Martinez because he would not come to a pre-indictment plea deal with the United States on the bribery and other charges he pleaded not guilty to on Monday.
While the federal indictment against Martinez alleges he accepted favors and money from Whitaker in return for VIPD contracts — including lavish arrangements when he needed to travel for a life-threatening medical condition — the lawsuit claims it was Whitaker who insisted on helping.
Not only did Whitaker offer to fly Martinez to Boston and pay for his hotel accommodations, but he also found the neurosurgeon who would treat him, according to the suit. When Martinez planned to skip his postsurgery appointment, Whitaker scheduled it himself and again flew Martinez to Boston and put him up in a hotel, it says.
“Martinez never saw the billing for the hotel or flights (either before or after the expenses were incurred) and never gave Whitaker anything in exchange for the assistance in the medical treatment — Whitaker represented that he was ‘helping a friend,’” the suit says.
“Martinez asked if he could pay Whitaker back for the flights and hotel stays. Whitaker said, ‘Get out of here!’ — indicating that Whitaker would not accept repayment,” it says.
Other expenses Whitaker helped with included tuition for Martinez’s children, and a loan in August 2023 so the family could move from their rental in Bovoni, where Martinez sometimes felt under threat “from individuals hanging out in the community,” to a safer location, according to the suit.
Martinez accepted Whitaker’s help because he saw him as a friend, it says.
“In reality, Whitaker, at the direction of the Federal government, undertook to entrap Ray Martinez in a manufactured scheme in order to try to lessen Whitaker’s criminal exposure” — a common pattern for him — the suit states.
What Martinez thought was an honest business deal with a friend, Whitaker and the federal government recast “as criminal activity,” it says, beginning a scheme to implicate him in activities he “had no predisposition to commit.”
The lawsuit alleges fraudulent misrepresentation; breach of contract; breach of agreement; promissory estoppel; breach of covenant of good faith and fair dealing; tortious interference with business relations; infliction of emotional distress (intentional and/or reckless); and infliction of emotional distress (negligent).
Martinez is seeking compensatory damages; incidental damages; punitive damages; interest; attorney’s fees and costs and any other relief deemed appropriate.
Whitaker had not responded to the lawsuit as of Friday.
