Man arrested for impersonating a police officer in Greenfield after pulling over off-duty deputy
A Greenfield man was arrested over the weekend accused of impersonating a police officer and conducting traffic stops.
But Clemente Martinez picked the wrong day and the wrong car to stop early Sunday morning. Turns out the fake cop ended up pulling over a real officer.
“He was trying to stop and actually did stop our off-duty sergeant so we subsequently arrested him,” said John Thornburg, spokesman for the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office.
Martinez was able to pull over that off-duty sergeant with the Monterey County Sheriff's Office because Martinez had tricked out his white Chevy Malibu with red and blue flashing lights on the front grill.
But when the sergeant stopped Martinez never got out of his car instead he drove off. Sensing something wasn’t right, the sergeant followed the impersonator and called Greenfield police who arrested Martinez as he pulled into his home on Burgundy.
Police say Martinez has likely pulled the same stunt before.
“He's either the most unlucky person on the planet the one time he tries to pull this off he tries to stop an off-duty peace officer. Chances are that's not the case he has probably stopped other people and to your point what happened did he issue some sort of fake citation did he get some money from them,” Thornburg said.
The story gets more bizarre. At the time of his arrest police say Martinez was drunk driving and driving with a suspended license for previous DUI convictions. According to the arresting officer Erik Santiago, Martinez told him he pulled over the sergeant because he thought he was a drunk driver and wanted to warn him of the dangers of drinking and driving.
“I guess in one sense we can say we were lucky here he tried to stop a sergeant who recognized what was going on and was able to turn that around to get him stopped, the guy that was doing all of this and we got him arrested he's in the county jail,” Thornburg said.
Martinez was booked into the county jail on charges of impersonator and officer, drunk driving and evading police.
Greenfield police and the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office want to hear from anyone who may have had contact with Martinez.