Criminal charges against former Dolphin Jonathan Martin are dismissed

VAN NUYS — A criminal case was dismissed today against former Miami Dolphins player and Harvard-Westlake School alum Jonathan Martin, who was charged with criminal threats stemming from an Instagram post that led to a daylong shutdown of the exclusive school’s Studio City campus in 2018.

The dismissal comes after Martin completed a two-year diversion program.

“I think it was long overdue. I’m glad justice was finally served in this case,” Martin’s attorney, Winston Kevin McKesson, said of the dismissal. “It did take two years out of my client’s life.”

According to online images of the Instagram message, Martin allegedly posted a photo of a shotgun with a several shotgun shells, emblazoned with the hashtags #HarvardWestlake and #MiamiDolphins. The text of the post read, “When you’re a bully victim & a coward, your options are suicide, or revenge.”

Martin, who retired in 2015, was at the center of an NFL bullying scandal during his playing days and claimed during that investigation that he had also been bullied at Harvard-Westlake.

The Instagram post tagged former Dolphins teammates Richie Incognito and Mike Pouncey and a pair of former Harvard-Westlake classmates. Incognito was suspended by the Dolphins in 2013 in response to allegations of bullying and harassment — some of it alleged to be racial in nature — targeting Martin. Pouncey was also implicated in the scandal, which led to extensive investigations by the NFL and the Dolphins.

On Feb. 23, 2018, officials with Harvard-Westlake sent an early morning message via the school’s emergency alert notification system advising students to stay home, apologizing for the short notice and citing student safety as the school’s highest priority.

Martin was initially charged in March 2018 with four felony counts of criminal threats and one misdemeanor count of possessing a loaded firearm, but one of the felony counts was dismissed at a January 2019 hearing.

Martin’s attorney said he didn’t think the matter should have been prosecuted, and called his client “a good man.”

Source: Orange County Register