Jonathan Martin, a former offensive lineman for the Miami Dolphins, is headed to trial over a 2018 Instagram post that shut down an elite private prep school he attended during high school in Los Angeles.
Martin, 29, spent three seasons in the NFL playing for the Dolphins before leaving in late 2013 after saying he was bullied by teammates including Richie Incognito.
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The following March, Martin was traded to the San Francisco 49ers, where he played one season. Martin, 29, retired after the 2014-15 season, New York Daily News reported.
In 2015, Martin described on social media how he failed to fit in at Harvard-Westlake high school in Los Angeles. He alleged suicide attempts and bullying by former Miami Dolphins teammates. He said he felt out of place, “one of just a handful of minorities” at his private high school, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The NFL investigated Martin’s bullying claims, dubbed Bullygate, and confirmed that he had suffered harassment on the team and had been depressed since he was a teen.
Martin posted an Instagram photo on Feb. 22,
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Shellie Samuels said Martin’s post was enough evidence to hold him “to answer” for three felony charges in the case.
The charges allege that Martin criminally threatened former Dolphin player Incognito and two former classmates at Harvard-Westlake high school.
A detective testified that Incognito was so frightened when he learned about the post on Feb. 22, that he drove with his dad, brother
Martin’s lawyer, Winston McKesson, said it was an appropriate response when Harvard-Westlake closed the school on Feb. 23 as a precaution — but that doesn’t mean his client was a true threat.
Martin never intended to hurt anyone, McKesson said. The post was a plea for help and he checked himself into a Glendale hospital shortly after posting it.
“He was struggling with his own demons. That’s what this is,” the lawyer told the court, arguing the post was not specific enough to constitute a criminal threat under the law.
The judge disagreed, saying she found enough evidence to let a jury decide.
Martin is free on $210,000 bail. His re-arraignment was set for Jan. 30.
Martin graduated from Harvard-Westlake in 2008 and attended Stanford University before joining the Dolphins in 2012, LA Times reported.
In a 2015 Twitter post, Martin talked about growing up in Los Angeles. The roots of his troubles, he wrote, were his struggles with racial identity.
“You learn to tone down your size & blackness by becoming shy, introverted, friendly, so you won’t scare the little rich white kids or their parents,” he wrote in 2015. “Neither black nor white people accept you because they don’t understand you. It takes away from your self-confidence, your self-worth, your sanity.”
Martin could receive up to six years in prison if convicted of all charges.
The Instagram post came weeks after a gunman killed 17 people at a Parkland, Fla., high school, Harvard-Westlake’s president said.
