photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

Timothy Glen Martins sits with defense attorney Michael Clarke during a jury trial on May 3, 2022. Martins, a former Douglas County employee, is charged with multiple counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child.

At a trial Tuesday for a former Douglas County employee accused of child sex crimes, one alleged victim said the man repeatedly entered her room while she was sleeping in the nude and cuddled with her.

The alleged victim, who is now an adult, testified in Douglas County District Court at the trial of Timothy Glen Martins, 47, of Lawrence. Martins worked for four years as an IT specialist at Douglas County’s Judicial and Law Enforcement Center — the same facility where jury trials are held in the county. He is accused of lewd fondling of two teenagers in his care; specifically, he is charged with four counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child between the ages of 14 and 16 and one count of aggravated indecent liberties with a child under the age of 14.

District Attorney Suzanne Valdez said Tuesday that the accusations against Martins spanned from 2012 to 2017. She said that there was a culture within Martins’ household of sleeping in the nude and cuddling where “skin to skin contact” was encouraged.

Defense attorney Michael Clarke said Martins didn’t dispute that such incidents occurred, but that it would be up to the jury to determine whether the touching was sexual in nature.

“What you can expect is to have your work cut out for you,” Clarke said.

The alleged victim who testified Tuesday said that she would regularly be asleep when Martins would enter the room and lie down in her bed. She said she slept naked but that Martins would be wearing underwear and a shirt, and that he would rub her back and cuddle with her for 30 minutes at a time.

The alleged victim also said that the last time Martins cuddled with her, he had an erection that she felt on the small of her back. She said she moved a pillow between them so she couldn’t feel it. She said Martins told her what it was and explained that “it happens sometimes” and then continued to cuddle with her in silence for some time afterward.

The alleged victim said that she went to a private school that didn’t teach her about how to recognize sexual abuse. She said she didn’t realize at the time that the cuddling was out of the ordinary — she said it was only when she was older that she realized it was “not normal”.

Valdez said that another child in Martins’ care experienced more aggressive touching. She said that Martins kissed that child’s breasts and penetrated her with his fingers.

The prosecution also played a video on Tuesday of an interview between Martins and Lawrence Police Sgt. Jamie Lawson in January 2021. In that video, which was taken from a detective’s body camera, Martins could be heard denying that he penetrated the child, but he did say in the footage that he touched the child’s breast and frequently cuddled with her.

“It sounds really bad,” Martins said in the video.

Lawson testified that the interview took place at the Judicial and Law Enforcement Center in a room that had been used for interviews with suspects when Lawrence police were still based at the center. Lawson said he approached Martins while Martins was working in the basement of the center and asked him to have a private conversation upstairs. At the start of the interview, Lawson said Martins told him that “I know what this is about.”

Martins was an IT specialist with the Kansas Department of Corrections from 2010 to 2016 before taking a job with Douglas County in 2017. Prior to his IT jobs, he spent more than 10 years as a corrections officer in Shawnee County.

Because Martins worked in the building where jury trials normally take place and where judges normally work, Douglas County brought in a judge from another jurisdiction — Gunnar Sundby, a retired judge from Leavenworth County — to avoid the possibility of a conflict of interest. Sundby was assigned to the case shortly after Martins was arrested in January 2021, according to court records.

Neither Martins nor the other alleged victim testified on Tuesday. The trial will continue on Wednesday.