An Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper who was suspended after being involved in a scuffle with an emergency medical technician in May was put on paid administrative leave Sunday in connection with another incident.
MultimediaPhotoview all photos Troopers Daniel Martin and Tommy Allen were placed on administrative leave after a Holdenville man filed a complaint after he was arrested on Saturday.
"Basically, there was a traffic stop last night and out of that an individual was jailed and the guy apparently contacted the department today wanting to file a complaint," said patrol Capt. Chris West. "Based on the nature of the complaint and what Martin went through (previously), we thought we'd just go ahead and pull him off and investigate."
The Holdenville man was not a party in the initial traffic stop, West said, and got involved during the incident.
"It was another individual that got involved," West said. "We'll know more tomorrow."
West didn't identify the man filing the complain, but Khristopher Douglas told KWTV-9 that he was on a friend's property when the troopers pulled up. Douglas said they demanded that he move away from the house and toward the street. When he did, he said he was thrown to the ground, beaten with a club and arrested.
"He (Martin) started beating me with the nightstick and the other officer jumped on my back and put a knee in my back and I was getting hit with the nightstick," Douglas said.
This is the second time this year Martin has been investigated for his actions. In July, Martin was suspended for five days after an investigation of a May 24 scuffle with emergency medical technician Maurice White Jr.
In that incident, Martin pulled over an ambulance in Paden after the driver, Paul Franks, failed to yield to Martin's patrol car while responding to a call of a stolen vehicle. Martin later pulled the ambulance over, saying Franks gave him an obscene gesture, which Franks denies.
White approached Martin from the back of the ambulance. Martin said White kept getting in his way, and finally Martin tried to arrest White for obstructing an officer. That sparked the first of two scuffles as Martin said he tried to arrest White but the paramedic threw up his arms to resist the arrest.
A cell-phone video of the incident was placed on YouTube.
Martin was previously the chief of police at Fairfax in Osage County from March 1999 to July 2000, which ended with his firing. He also served in the Stillwater Police Department from October 2000 to March 2007.
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