Infamous, the masked crusader whose campaign against what he has identified as corruption in the post-John Pomierski era at Upland City Hall and within the Upland Police Department has heretofore gone largely unacknowledged by city officials, unveiled himself at the Upland City Council meeting this week, divulging yet more about what has led to his unorthodox and quixotic battle against the powers that be in the City of Gracious Living.
Relying upon his booming baritone voice and shrouded persona, Infamous has before come to Upland City Council meetings, railing against city officials and the misconduct he has elliptically suggested they are immersed in. City officials, acutely conscious of how Upland’s reputation has been tarred by the indictments and convictions of former mayor John Pomierski, who extorted those with projects and permit applications pending at City Hall for bribes, and Pomierski’s hand-picked city manager Robb Quincey who was charged with misappropriation of public money and illicitly benefiting from a city contract, have largely ignored Infamous’s claims, seeking to marginalizing him by suggesting he is referring to bygone events and counterpunching by seeking to stigmatize him with criminal charges.
But Infamous has in fact been referencing events that have occurred under the watch of the five current members of the city council – mayor Ray Musser, councilwomen Debbie Stone and Carol Timm and councilmen Gino Filippi and Glenn Bozar – who have failed to address the issues he has squarely laid before them, all of which occurred after Pomierski was sent to federal prison.
On September 28, Infamous addressed the city council in his most dramatic presentation yet, dropping into his harangue further detail with regard to his animus with the city, though he again did not offer a fully expository narrative of the events animating him or the context of his mistreatment.
“I’m Infamous,” he said. “Look upon the face of your corruption, Upland.”
When councilman Glenn Bozar and Councilwoman Debra Stone reacted with apparent bemusement to his presence at the podium, Infamous, wearing a dark black mask augmented with a small upside-down American flag over his right eye and dark sunglasses, thundered, “What the hell are you smiling about? How about you show me just a little bit of respect and you don’t smile? Leave the smiling to me. No? Idiots!”
He continued, “So, you’ve made me famous. Whew! Haven’t you? First protest in Upland: you arrest me. Joining with the district attorney, you try to throw these frivolous charges – carrying weaponized tear gas, instigating fights in public and then you get me with being too loud. I should hope so. You have given me the greatest honor that a protestor can have bestowed upon them: arrested for my convictions and found innocent.”
He thundered, “Not a terrorist! Now, what’s different about me? Real quick, three minutes to sum up a year.”
He filled in some more detail with regard to the abuse he says the city perpetrated against him.
“I come out here,” he said. “J. Kirk pulls a gun on me. I ask you for your help and I try to pull you out of this corruption, this cesspool that you are in and you pull me into it! Are you surprised that I come out like this? Infamous! Better believe it! So twisted by my hate for you! I’m not even angry anymore. I hate you! It’s like a fire burning in my soul and I feed upon it. I hate you for what you’ve done to me. You owe me a debt. You owe me. You might think I owe you. You owe me. You owe me. Your job: to deal with corruption. And you failed me. And look at me! I am so distressed I have it branded on my face like a cow. You owe me. There’s nothing you can do. There is nothing you can say. There’s no amount of money you can pay for this, for what you have done to be, the way you twisted the hate in me. So what am I left to do? Protest for the rest of my life? Just be angry? Allow it to twist me into a greater monster than what I am? I say no. But you still owe me a debt and that debt must be paid. Everybody pays me what they owe me. So how do I get my payment from you? It’s illogical for me to ask you for payment on something you cannot pay for. So tonight, I will do my most infamous act ever – infamous, vile, disgusting, decrepit. That’s what it means. In this society, this society demands that you pay me. I sue you. I protest you. I follow you to the depths of the earth. I have no problem doing that. But instead, I am going to do something even more infamous, the most infamous thing that I’ve ever done.”
He paused and then asked the council, “Are you ready?” He turned to glance at the audience, asking them “Are you ready?” As he uttered the next words, “The most infamous act I’ll ever do,” police chief Brian Johnson, who serves in the capacity of sergeant-at-arms during the council meetings and had not previously personally encountered Infamous, at that point appeared to be in a high degree of confusion about what to do, and was poised on the brink of taking action.
Infamous then unmasked himself, revealing he is Justin Martinez.
“The upside down flag represents distress,” Martinez intoned. “And I hate you. Look at my face. This is hate. I hate you!” he growled. He paused momentarily. The intensity of his voice diminished. “But I forgive you. For J. Kirk, you owe me nothing,” he said and then walked away from the podium.
The Sentinel has learned that Martinez was working as a security guard at a medical marijuana facility in the city in September 2014 when he claims he was threatened by an Upland Police officer he subsequently identified as Jake Kirk. He said that Kirk pulled a gun on him and threatened him. Martinez filed multiple complaints with the city, the police department, the city attorney and the district attorney over the matter. Twice, Martinez maintains, during phone conversations with then-police chief Jeff Mendenhall on September 10, 2014, and with lieutenant Alan Ansara on September 11, 2014, he obtained admissions from Mendenhall and Ansara that Kirk had acted inappropriately. Subsequently, Martinez sought to obtain the recordings of those conversations or transcripts of them. With regard to the phone conversation with Mendenhall, an attorney working for the city, Gregory Palmer, wrote, “The Upland Police Department will not be able to provide you with this document because it does not exist. At the time of this conversation it was believed that it was on a recorded line. However, it has subsequently been determined that the conversation was not recorded. Thus, the record you seek does not exist.”
With regard to the phone conversation with Ansara, Palmer repeated word for word the response he had given with regard to the phone conversation with Mendenhall, writing, “The Upland Police Department will not be able to provide you with this document because it does not exist. At the time of this conversation it was believed that it was on a recorded line. However, it has subsequently been determined that the conversation was not recorded. Thus, the record you seek does not exist.”
The city subsequently sought to have Martinez charged with possession of more than 2.5 ounces of pepper spray, unlawful possession, sale and transportation of a tear gas weapon, attempting to fight in public and use of offensive words in a public place, all misdemeanors, as a result of his continuing protests over the city’s action and one particular incident on June 7 of this year. Before Judge James Hosking, on August 26, all of those charges were dismissed. Martinez entered a no contest plea to an amended charge of making loud noise in public.