Labor Department says unsafe agency workplace ultimately led to parole agent’s death

Maryland’s public safety department maintains an unsafe workplace that puts employees’ safety at risk and ultimately led to the May 31 killing of Parole Agent Davis Martinez while he was checking in on a parolee.

That was the finding of a citation issued by the Maryland Department of Labor, which said that the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services’ failures exposed its workers to physical threats “such as being shot, punched, kicked, scratched, stabbed, strangled, bit and/or spit on.”

The Jan. 28 citation from the Maryland Occupational Safety and Health office gives Public Safety until March 3 to correct the “serious” workplace safety violations listed in the 10-page citation.

Many of the corrective actions listed in the citation are items that unions representing parole and corrections workers have been calling for since the death of Martinez, the first parole agent to die in the line of duty in Maryland.

“As our team is reading through the citation, we felt like were just reading through our testimony,” Rayneika Robinson, the president of Local 3661 of the American Federation of State, County and Muncipal Employees, said Friday.

“I think people are holding on to this [citation] as like a little piece of hope. We now have actual standards that you can implement that can now keep us safe,” said Robinson, a parole and probation agent herself.

Martinez, 33, headed to Silver Spring on the morning of May 31 to do a home visit on a parolee who had been released after serving 21 years of a 40-year sentence for sex assaults and burglary. Martinez’s supervisors never checked in on him over the course of the day, even though the home visit should have only taken part of the day. His body was only discovered after co-workers, concerned that he had not returned by the end of the day, called police to investigate.

Police found Martinez’s body in the parolee’s home, brutally beaten and stabbed. The parolee, Emanuel Edward Sewell, was arrested a day later in West Virginia and was returned to Montgomery County, where he faces a charge of first-degree murder in the death.

While the citation does not mention Martinez by name, it is dated to a May 31 safety violation, when it said a parole and probation agent was fatally beaten and stabbed “while the … agent conducted a home visit.” But it also said that other unspecified assaults against employees have resulted “in injuries including sprains, contusions, lacerations, fractures and concussions.”

Among the improvements ordered in the MOSH citation are the provision of two-way radios for agents to easily contact their offices; check-in schedules for agents in the field; GPS tracking on agents’ cars; a requirement that two agents be dispatched when conducting home visits; and post-incident investigations and debriefings with all staff.

The citation says agents should be equipped with pepper spray, body-worn cameras and well-fitted bullet- and stab-proof vests. It also calls  for safety improvements in Public Safety offices, not just in the field. They include a requirement that the department craft policy and incorporate safety changes such as a workplace violence prevention program, and configure agents’ desks in the office “that prevent clients from jumping over, reaching into, over, or otherwise entering the workstations.”

About a week after Martinez’s death, three top officers of the Division of Parole and Probation were ousted and the department immediately canceled home visits by parole agents, among other changes.

Public Safety Secretary Carolyn Scruggs said Friday that, with the exception of correctional services’ interstate compact and warrant apprehension units, home visits will by parole agents will not resume until remaining staff are properly trained and fitted for protective vests.

“We will certainly phase them in,” Scruggs said during testimony to the House Appropriations Committee. It was the fourth time since Martinez’s death that Scruggs has been called to testify before lawmakers to explain how the department plans to improve employee safety.

House Majority Whip Jazz Lewis (D-Prince George’s), who serves on the Appropriations Committee, asked Scruggs on Friday if the citation has been posted publicly for all workers to see, as is required.

Scruggs nodded yes.

“That’s great to hear,” Lewis said.

He then asked if the agency could meet the March 3 deadline to correct the violations cited.

Deputy Secretary for Administration Joseph Sedtal said some policy changes must be bargained with union representatives, so an extension may be needed in order to get them approved and in place.

“I strongly encourage you guys to work with that expeditiously as I know you will,” Lewis said.

Scruggs declined, through a spokesperson, to comment after Friday’s hearing. An agency response to the citation will be coming soon, the spokesperson said.

Martinez’s family, friends and colleagues, meanwhile, are pushing for passage of the Davis Martinez Public Employee Safety and Health Act, which seeks to provide better oversight of state workplaces while expanding employee protections and safety measures out to field work, among other measures.

The Senate Finance heard Senate Bill 26, sponsored by Sen. Benjamin F. Kramer (D-Montgomery), on Jan. 29. The House Appropriations Committee has yet to schedule a hearing on the House version, sponsored by Del. Jared Solomon (D-Montgomery).

Solomon, who serves on Appropriations, said the MOSH citation illuminated a possible culture of employees not reporting violent incidents that may not ever be addressed.

“There’s a lot of stuff in there that is really concerning,” he said after the hearing. “As much as this is about the safety of our state employees, it’s also about public safety as well.”

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