Trial for Ex-Softball Coach in Teen Sex Case Starts Next Month
Michael Martis booking photo
SACRAMENTO — The former softball coach at a private Catholic high school, who was accused of sex with an underage girl and former student, will face trial next month.
Michael Martis, 57, who was a coach at St. Francis High School in Sacramento, is set to return to Sacramento Superior County Court on February 23, 2017, after waiving his preliminary hearing this week on January 3. The trial will begin on February 27.
Martis faces seven felony counts that include sexual intercourse, oral copulation, and penetration using a foreign object with a 16-year-old girl from June 2013 to September 2013.
The girl—who had been on the school softball team—told authorities in November 2015 that the acts with Martis had occurred after they were texting. This was after her parents found out about the relationship after intercepting texts between Martis and their daughter in late 2015. Once they learned of the texts, they called police. By this time, the unlawful relationship had been going on for two years.
Martis surrendered to authorities on June 9, 2015, and was arrested. He spent one night in Sacramento County Jail.
In addition, allegations have also been made by Sacramento County prosecutors that Martis had sex with a 15-year-old girl between September 2006 and September 2007.
His coaching careers includes stints at Oak Ridge High School in El Dorado Hills for one season in 2015, which followed four years at St. Francis High School from 2010-2014.
In early 2016, St. Francis High School President Margo Reid Brown released a statement which read:
“At various times, Mr. Martis coached JV or varsity softball at St. Francis from 2010 to 2014. He passed the fingerprint background check we require of all staff and volunteers prior to working with students and he left on good terms when he started coaching at another local school in 2014. During his association with St. Francis High School, we received no complaints about Mr. Martis.”
The El Dorado High School District also released a statement:
“Oak Ridge High School and the El Dorado Union High School District’s top priority is always the safety and well-being of our students and staff. We have learned that the Sacramento Police Department has arrested Michael Martis for allegedly having an unlawful sexual relationship with a St. Francis Catholic High School student. Mr. Martis was the varsity softball coach at Oak Ridge High School for one season, the spring of 2015. Oak Ridge High School and the District will continue to cooperate with the Sacramento Police Department in this matter.”
