Update: This article was updated to include information about the dismissal of the domestic violence charge. 

The Associated Students Student Advocate General is being charged with two criminal offenses, according to publicly available court records as well as police arrest records obtained by the Nexus.

Martinez was arrested once in February and once in March. Jose Ochoa / Daily Nexus

Grecia Martinez, a 21-year-old and third-year history of public policy major, was arrested once in February and once in March on charges of domestic violence and driving under influence respectively, according to arrest records.

The domestic violence charge was later dismissed in June.

The Nexus conducted a Santa Barbara Superior Court public case records search of all of the recently elected Associated Students (A.S.) executives. During the investigation, Martinez’s charges were listed among the search results. The Nexus then obtained police arrest records for the charges in question.

UC Santa Barbara Police Department (UCPD) officers first arrested Martinez on the 6500 block of Del Playa Drive in Isla Vista at approximately 11:40 a.m. on Feb. 14, according to arrest records. Martinez was charged with inflicting corporal injury on a spouse or cohabitant.

She was booked in the Santa Barbara Jail on $25,000 bail and was released around 1 a.m. on Feb. 15, according to arrest records.

Martinez pleaded not guilty. A settlement conference will be held in September, according to Santa Barbara trial court records. Martinez is being tried as a defendant against the People of the State of California.

A criminal protective order, which requires a “restrained person” not to “hurt, threaten, or communicate with the other person,” was filed on March 14, according to court records.

In a separate incident, California Highway Patrol (CHP) stopped Martinez on the 6500 block of Del Playa Drive in I.V. on March 1 at approximately 1:50 a.m. on charges of driving under the influence with a blood alcohol percent of over 0.08 percent, according to arrest records.

Martinez is also being charged with possession of a controlled substance, according to court records. The charge is not present in the arrest records, however.

She was cited with a $5,000 bail and was released from the Santa Barbara Jail around 11:20 p.m. later that day, according to arrest records.

An arraignment will be held for the DUI charges on June 26, according to court records.

Martinez was elected in late April and officially sworn in as Student Advocate General (S.A.G.) last Thursday. The S.A.G. works within the Office of Student Advocate, which works to help students who “face charges from the University in housing, academic, social conduct, and public interest matters,” according to the OSA website.

Martinez also served as a letters and science senator on the A.S. Senate during the 2017-2018 school year. She declined to comment for this story.

Shomik Mukherjee contributed reporting.

A version of the article appeared on p.5 of the May 31 print edition of the Daily Nexus.

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Evelyn Spence
Evelyn Spence harbors a great love for em dashes and runs on nothing but iced coffee, Jolly Ranchers and breaking news. She serves as the managing editor and can be reached at evelyn@dailynexus.com, managing@dailynexus.com or at @evelynrosesc on Twitter.