Sheriff’s Deputy Gets Award for Bravery

A Ventura County sheriff’s deputy who was shot three times last year during a routine traffic stop has been awarded the department’s top honor for the bravery he displayed during and after the ordeal.

During a ceremony last week at the Sheriff’s Department in Ventura, Sheriff Larry Carpenter draped a medal around the neck of Senior Deputy Michael Martinez, an 11-year veteran of the department.

Martinez, who earlier this month was named the Kiwanis Club’s Peace Officer of the Year, said he was stunned.

“We gave it to him because of his courage but also because of his recovery,” Capt. Keith Parks said. “He never stopped saying that he would come back to work.”

Carpenter has bestowed the Sheriff’s Star twice since he created the award. The first recipient was slain Deputy Peter Aguirre, who received the medal posthumously last year.

“From the bravery he showed that night in April, to the resolve he has made to overcome his injuries in order to return to work, Mike is a role model for us all,” Carpenter said.

On the night of April 29, 1997, Martinez, 41, and his partner, Deputy Jennifer Sezzi, were shot after stopping a car with a broken taillight in Nyeland Acres.

During the stop, passenger Emilio Orozco fired several rounds from a revolver. Two struck Martinez’s protective vest--one of the shots knocked his badge off--and a third hit his right shoulder. Sezzi’s shoulder was grazed.

Martinez was able to return fire and radio for help.

Sezzi, 30, returned to work almost immediately but Martinez underwent months of rehabilitation and only recently returned to work as a detective in Camarillo.

Orozco, a 22-year-old laborer from Oxnard, was sentenced in March to two consecutive life terms.

Orozco told authorities he fired because he was worried the deputies would find the gun stuck in his boot.