A state audit released Monday accused Lake County Sheriff Oscar Martinez Jr. of improperly using nearly $300,000 for charity or church donations, golf outings and travel costs.
In an 83-page report, auditors flagged 221 purchases totaling $265,000 from the jail’s commissary fund from January 2022 to December 2024 that violated state law, noting that Martinez often mischaracterized the expenses as “Prevent Juvenile Delinquency,” “(Juvenile) Crime Prevention,” and “Community Relations.”
In one instance, records show Karma Cigar Bar in Merrillville was paid $5,000 in July 2023 for “family violence prevention.” The report concluded Karma got $17,500 in total for “preventing juvenile delinquency” and $3,500 as a “cerebral palsy donation.”
In addition to the $265,000 spent, it cited nearly $25,000 in other “questionable” purchases with commissary money; almost $3,500 in non-employee travel expenses, including for Martinez’s wife; and required him to repay $59,000 for the audit’s costs.
“I think I had a good, strong suspicion there was misuse,” said Lake County Commissioner Mike Repay, D-Hammond, by phone Monday. “I didn’t realize the use was so blatantly for his personal benefit. That’s the shocking part.”
“This is on a level that’s really, really egregious,” he said. “I would think to repaint helicopters is not a great use of taxpayer money. It’s not the same as staying at some of the most posh hotel rooms.”
In his response to auditors, Repay wrote the Lake County Board of Commissioners asked for guidance “as early as 2019” for Martinez’s “irregular” purchases with commissary money.
Although the law designates commissary funds are supposed to be for only specific costs, sheriffs haven’t faced meaningful oversight, leading to corruption reports around the state. Over the years, sheriffs and sheriff’s associations have guarded the fund against oversight like their “own little piggybank,” Repay said in an interview.
State auditors were performing an annual audit of the county’s 2022 expenses when they noticed that commissary funds were disbursed at Martinez’s direction rather than based on an actual vendor invoice, so they launched a special investigation of the commissary fund. Martinez claimed that purchases outside of those listed in the law are paid out of his campaign fund, but the state audit showed otherwise.
The audit report was sent to the Indiana Attorney General’s Office and local U.S. Attorney.
“I couldn’t imagine a situation where there wouldn’t be criminal charges. I really couldn’t,” Repay said, when asked about the prospect. “Other people get to decide if it’s criminal, or not, whether there’s guilt or not.”
The Board of Commissioners had tried to bring an organization from the outside to question and audit the jail’s operations, including the commissary. In February 2021, they tried to have a consultant go to the jail, but were “thwarted” by the Sheriff’s Department.
They sued for increased oversight and lost, Repay said. At the time, they were looking “mainly about conditions at the jail,” which would have benefited from that money.
A Lake County Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment by press time. Martinez is term-limited and leaves office in December. He won a party caucus in 2017 after former Sheriff John Buncich was convicted of bribery and wire fraud.
Martinez’s attorney John Kopack disputed the audit’s finding, noting “commissary funds are not tax dollars” and that investing in community groups was a form of crime prevention.
The report shows Martinez gave $16,000 to St. John Girls Softball League, where he served as president in 2021 and was involved with the entity for at least 15 years.
A $1,000 gift to the Northern Indiana Area Labor Federation was written in paperwork for reducing substance abuse or juvenile delinquency. In reality, it was a $1,000 golf sponsorship.
The report also cited the department for 17 officers that used jail commissary funds for $56,000 for hotels at conferences around the U.S. Martinez accounted for $37,000 of the total — including $9,200 for a five-night stay at a 2022 International Association of Chiefs of Police conference in Dallas, almost $4,000 in hotel charges for a Shooting, Hunting, and Outdoor Trade Show (“SHOT show”) in Las Vegas, and nearly $6,900 bill for a 2024 Motorola conference in Grapevine, Texas.
Another noted Martinez charged $605 from 2022 to 2024 from a Sheriff’s credit card for an iCloud and Apple Music Family Subscription. He later repaid $491, which only covered the $121 in iCloud expenses.
Deputy Commander Jeremy Kalvaitis told auditors that the Apple Music was for “official business” because it was used in parades. The account was under the name of Melissa Martinez, the sheriff’s wife.
The report said Martinez improperly used $1,500 in commissary funds to pay for conference registration costs for his wife and nine others in 2022 and 2023. Also, Martinez and various officers got reimbursed for $5,700 in restaurant bills at conferences where they also got a per diem allowance. Auditors found 46% of the reimbursed costs were for alcohol.
