HOUSTON – KPRC 2 Investigates confirmed though multiple sources that Houston Police Department Assistant Chief Milton Wyatt Martin (AC), who oversees the Professional Standards Command of HPD, including the Internal Affairs Division has been moved out of his position.
He is the second person to be removed this week.
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AC Martin was involved in creating the report dealing with the 264,000 suspended cases due to the lack of personnel.
KPRC 2 Investigates was first to tell you in late July, he and Commander Donna Crawford (Cmdr.) were named in a new complaint filed with the department by an active commander alleging retaliation.
As we reported, a 2018 email indicated that then-HPD Chief Troy Finner was aware of the suspended cases much earlier than he claimed. Ultimately, he chose to take his retirement. Sources tell us, the commander who identified Finner claims he was specifically retaliated against by Cmdr. Crawford and AC Martin.
On Wednesday, KRPC 2 Investigates’ Mario Diaz questioned Acting Police Chief Larry Satterwhite about the two’s involvement in the report.
He expressed AC Martin was involved in creation of the report, and in the room when asked multiple times Tuesday, “Is there something wrong here?”
Chief Satterwhite echoed there was nothing wrong with the report, and much of what was in the report was reported by us.
When Diaz asked, “Were Martin and Crawford still a part of this after the complaint was issued?”
The Acting Chief responded, “The complaint was just issued. Okay, so we were already pretty much done with the report. We were putting finishing touches on it. The complaint was just issued, that’s why I can’t even talk about it.”
He went on to add, “I oversaw a lot of it, but I run the department, so I didn’t oversee everything, but I have trusted agents in there and everyone from different perspectives said there is nothing in here that is not accurate because we didn’t want to say anything inappropriate. We didn’t want to put a spotlight on anybody inappropriately or anything like that.”
By Thursday morning, sources say AC Martin was removed from his position overseeing professional standards and swapped out with Assistant Chief Jessica Anderson, who will now lead the department. AC Martin will take her former roll over Support Services for HPD.
This comes after KPRC 2 Investigates reported Officer Chandra Hatcher was taken off the executive team as an Executive Assistant Chief (EAC). She sent then-Chief Finner a letter in February, requesting an investigation into the suspended cases to “determine if department personnel violated directives.”
The letter claimed she was in attendance for a 2021 meeting, but that was later confirmed to be false, causing the report released Tuesday to be delayed even longer.
Acting Chief Satterwhite said this about her, “31 years of service, hard work, mistakes were made. I will say this, at our level, at the chief level, when we put on the extra star, we all know it’s an appointed position and things can happen. Sometimes within our control, sometimes without our control. Either way, we can still no longer be on the team. That’s the deal we all take, and we understand that.”
She was given time to explore her next steps.
It is unclear if Cmdr. Crawford will be reassigned as well.
HPD has not confirmed the change involving AC Martin and AC Anderson at the time of this report.
