Share
Have more to add? News tip? Tell us
FORT WORTH -- Former radio talk show host Russ Martin was sentenced Friday to two years probation after pleading no contest to assaulting his 27-year-old fiancee last summer.
The plea agreement came during a morning docket in County Criminal Court 5 in which Judge Jamie Cummings was to rule on Martin’s motion to suppress a warrant that led to his July 18 arrest on the assault allegation.Instead, Cummings placed Martin on two years deferred adjudication probation for assault with bodily injury on a family member -- the woman who had been living with him in his Southlake home for three years.As a condition of his probation, the 48-year-old former host the Russ Martin Show on KLLI/"Live 105.3" FM was ordered to pay a $1,000 fine, take battering intervention counseling and and to have no “harmful or injurious contact” with the woman, said prosecutor Sean Colston.If Martin successfully completes his probation, he will have no record of a criminal conviction. If he violates his probation terms, he could be sentenced to as much as one year in jail, Colston said.In a June 29 hearing, defense attorney Tim Powers asked Cummings to suppress the arrest warrant, saying that Southlake police had done a sloppy job of investigating the woman’s allegation that Martin had pulled her hair, pushed her against the wall and kicked her on the thigh.Powers noted that Martin’s fiancee did not call 911 on July 14, 2008, the night she made an audio recording of Martin threatening her over the phone when she told him she had not called the Internal Revenue Service about documents he had sent.Martin was heard screaming and threatening his fiancee on the recording played at the June 29 hearing.Colston said he cannot say how Cummings would have ruled on the defense motion, although he believes the state was “on solid legal footing” on the warrant.He said pleas such as the one reached with Martin are fairly common in domestic violence cases.“When we’re able to work out a plea to get someone counseling, we’re going to take that position and move on,” Colston said. “We consider a situation where someone is going to be monitored for two years a good resolution.”Martin continued to host his show until December. A station officials said he left after the station changed formats.Neither Powers or an attorney representing the woman were immediately available for comment on the plea.MARTHA DELLER, 817-390-7857
@Nyx.CommentBody@