Key West Police were called Jan. 12 to intervene in a family dispute involving newly elected County Commissioner Eddie Martinez and his 24-year-old stepdaughter, Natalie Guerra, who was ultimately arrested on misdemeanor battery charges.
Police arrived at 1009 Simonton St., around 11 p.m., and several people outside directed officers to a second-floor apartment that’s accessible by a rear staircase.
“…there were things thrown all over the place and vomit on the staircase. We went up the stairs and spoke to a male later identified as Eddie Martinez,” the report states.
Eddie Martinez told officers he had gotten into an argument with his stepdaughter, Natalie Guerra, 24, who had driven down from her home in Homestead to pick up her younger sisters. Guerra told police her younger sisters had called her because their parents had been fighting for two days and the two younger girls wanted Guerra to come get them, reports state.
Guerra told police Eddie Martinez was “kicking her mother, Maria Martinez, out,” and she had driven down with her fiance to collect her mother and two sisters. But when she arrived, Eddie and Maria Martinez were reportedly getting along better, and Eddie Maetinez was refusing to let Guerra take her sisters to Homestead, reports state.
When Guerra arrived, she and Eddie Martinez began arguing. Guerra told police Eddie Martinez had “told her to get out of his house,” and then “threw a punch that missed Guerra,” according to police reports.
Guerra’s fiance then reportedly “bear-hugged” Eddie Martinez from behind, pinning his arms down. Guerra said she intervened to separate her stepfather and her fiance by “smacking them away,” reports states.
Officers photographed bruises and marks left by Guerra on Eddie Martinez’s head. After being struck by Guerra, Eddie Martinez told police, he vomited on the steps, reports state.
Eddie Martinez told police he did not want to press charges against his stepdaughter, but Florida law allows police to make an arrest in a domestic violence situation without the victim’s consent, according to the police report.
Guerra was arrested on misdemeanor battery charges and officers alerted the Department of Children and Families to the fact that minor children had been present during the altercation.
Martinez told Keys Weekly on Jan. 15 that the incident was “nothing more than a rebellious stepchild, unfortunately. She did some bad things and got put in jail for it. That’s my only comment.”
Eddie Martinez, a Republican, narrowly defeated incumbent Democrat Heather Carruthers in the Nov. 3 election for the County Commission District 3 seat. Carruthers later filed a legal challenge that claims Martinez did not live in District 3 at the time he was elected. That challenge is still pending in court.
