Nuggets' Martin gets off easy for tickets

Mar 12, 2008 - 12:22 AM DENVER (Ticker) -- Denver Nuggets forward Kenyon Martin apparently received preferential treatment, allowing him to keep his driver's license despite multiple reckless driving tickets, according to a published report.

The Rocky Mountain News reported on Tuesday that Martin was allowed to continue to drive despite one ticket for going 101 in a 30 mile-per-hour zone, and another for going 103 in a 55.

As a result, Russell Stone, the lead prosecutor in the case, was suspended for three days without pay, according to the report. He reportedly appealed the decision and lost.

The Rocky Mountain News said Stone declined to comment Monday.

"There's a strict policy in my office that us underlings are not allowed to make any comment to the press," Stone told the paper.

Nuggets spokesman Eric Sebastian on Monday told the newspaper neither the team nor Martin would comment.

Martin received the first ticket in January 2006, and another in September. According to the newspaper, in the first case, Stone re-negotiated a plea that had been agreed upon months before, so Martin wouldn't lose his driver's license.

In the second, Stone reportedly offered the 30-year-old Martin a more lenient plea than a different prosecutor who had been assigned the case, so Martin again could keep his license.

"I don't know why he did," said Vince DiCroce, who is the director of the city attorney's prosecution section, to the Rocky Mountain News.

"All I can say is that the plea bargains that (Martin) received were outside of our normal guidelines. At a minimum ... there's an appearance that (Martin) did receive preferential treatment."

Daniel Recht, an attorney in the firm representing Martin, said in the report there was nothing illegal about the negotiations. Recht said his firm, "ethically, competently and aggressively" represented Martin.

"We were just zealously representing our client, which is what we have an ethical obligation to do," he told the newspaper.