Ex-Cowboy star Martin is arrested. Assault charge his 3rd in 5months
By Todd Bensman / Staff Writer of The Dallas Morning News Published 08-14-1996
Former Dallas Cowboys defensive star Harvey Martin was in jail again Tuesday, charged for a third time in five months with assaulting his girlfriend.
Mr. Martin's girlfriend, 37-year-old Debbie Clark, also was arrested Tuesday and accused of assaulting her brother, who apparently tried to intervene in the couple's nightlong domestic altercation at Mr. Martin's apartment in the Knox-Henderson area north of downtown Dallas.
Ms. Clark told police that Mr. Martin slapped her, threw her out of his apartment wearing only a nightgown and bathrobe, threw her purse out after her and drove away.
She also said that Mr. Martin, a 1978 Super Bowl co-Most Valuable Player, had been smoking crack cocaine all night and began accusing her of seeing other men, leading to the assault, police said.
Police arrested Mr. Martin when he returned to the apartment a short time later.
Neither Mr. Martin nor Ms. Clark could be reached for comment Tuesday. Mr. Martin's attorney, Randy Isenberg, said his client denies using drugs Tuesday but planned to enter a no-contest plea on previous charges in hopes of winning probation and drug treatment, if offered by prosecutors.
In March, Mr. Martin was arrested after a similar incident with Ms. Clark and accused of felony cocaine possession and misdemeanor charges of assault and resisting arrest.
Mr. Martin, who retired from the Cowboys in 1984, had been scheduled to appear in court Tuesday to enter a plea on the charges from the March incident but called after his arrest to say he was ill, a prosecutor said.
After his arrest, a judge issued a mental illness warrant for Mr. Martin. That will transfer him from the Lew Sterrett Justice Center to an area hospital for a psychological evaluation after he posts his combined $1,000 bail.
"We want Harvey to get help if there's a problem," Mr. Isenberg said. "He's obviously distraught and concerned. He's not happy about being in jail at the moment."
According to police reports, the latest altercation began shortly after midnight Tuesday. Ms. Clark told police that Mr. Martin had summoned her from San Antonio, where she was undergoing drug rehabilitation treatment.
Sometime after she arrived at his apartment, Mr. Martin called her brother, Wendell Clark, and threatened him if he did not stop meddling in their relationship, said police Sgt. C.L. Williams of the family crimes unit.
"If you keep getting involved in this thing, I will cut you up into little pieces," Mr. Martin warned Mr. Clark, according to police.
Mr. Clark told police that he was concerned his sister would start using drugs again if she spent time with Mr. Martin because of their past history of drug abuse, the report said. Mr. Clark also told police that his sister called later Tuesday morning, complaining that Mr. Martin had been beating her.
After Mr. Martin threw her out and drove away, Ms. Clark smashed a window to get back into the apartment to call for help, she told police. Her brother arrived about 11 a.m., police said.
At that point, she and Mr. Clark began arguing, and Ms. Clark struck her brother in the face with the telephone base, causing a laceration that required hospital treatment, police said.
Ms. Clark was booked into jail on her charge, but police said they are not likely to pursue it unless her brother insists. She was released on $500 bond Tuesday night.
In March, Mr. Martin was arrested at the apartment following an alleged violent disturbance with Ms. Clark, who at the time was living with him. Ms. Clark told police that he threw her out of the apartment after beating her repeatedly during an intoxicated rage.
Responding officers have said they used pepper spray and physical force to arrest the 6-foot-7, 280-pound Mr. Martin, who violently resisted. As he was being booked at Lew Sterrett, jailers found cocaine in Mr. Martin's pockets. Mr. Martin claimed the drugs had been planted by authorities, who have denied the assertion.
Mr. Martin called that dispute with Ms. Clark a typical lovers' quarrel. He said she was drunk and had climbed onto his back patio fence, screaming incoherently. He also said he threw her out because she would not calm down and that she called police for revenge.
But according to police reports, Mr. Martin beat Ms. Clark with his hands. Arriving officers found her outside the apartment with bruises on her ribs, forehead and wrists. Some of Ms. Clark's hair had been pulled out, and her clothes were torn, police said.
She told police that Mr. Martin had in the past beaten and stabbed her and once broke her nose. She also said he was violent when he used cocaine and that he had used it earlier that night.
Mr. Martin, in an interview after the March arrest, denied having a drug problem.
Last month, he was charged with misdemeanor assault after a similar incident with Ms. Clark, Sgt. Williams said.
Mr. Martin's attorney declined to discuss specifics of the March or July cases. However, he suggested that Ms. Clark may have made up the stories of abuse to retaliate for Mr. Martin's refusal to take her back after a breakup.
"I believe she's saying these things because he would not let her in and didn't want anything to do with her," Mr. Isenberg said. "She's got to say something to the police to justify breaking into the apartment."
Prosecutors said that Mr. Martin's court date on the March charges has been postponed until later this week but that they were still trying to decide how to handle the latest allegations.
Once considered one of the NFL's premier pass rushers, Mr. Martin has a lengthy criminal history that includes assaulting a former girlfriend, drug possession, passing bad checks and driving while intoxicated.
Since retiring from the Cowboys, he has tried his hand at a number of businesses and jobs and once was host of a popular radio show. Relatives have not been able to say recently what Mr. Martin now does for a living.
