Navy lieutenant commander charged with third-degree rape of 14-year-old boy he allegedly paid $200 for sex
A high-ranking Navy officer has been charged with third-degree rape of a 14-year-old boy — allegedly turning up at the boy’s family home in full uniform and paying him $200 for sex, according to an affidavit.
Lt. Cmdr. Lucas Martinez, 61, who also goes by Lucas Martinezmendieta, allegedly met the boy on the map-based hookup site Sniffies, where his profile shows him in a white Navy uniform with his name tag clearly visible, according to an affidavit obtained by military news outlet Task & Purpose.
The officer used his line at the Fleet Readiness Center Northwest to call the minor, meeting up with him several times in Washington state, according to the affidavit.
The boy’s mom first called Anacortes police on Jan. 22 to report “suspicious” packages arriving at her home containing sex toys and kinky costumes, the documents said.
Her son then allegedly admitted posing as an 18-year-old on adult websites, using a nude picture of the lower half of his body and asking older men to send him gifts, according to the affidavit.
“No crime was established at that time,” the affidavit stated of the initial report of gifts and the boy using the app.
However, the same mom called back days later to say that Martinez came to her family home in his green camouflage Navy uniform and paid her underage son $200 for sex, the document.
The pair met several times — with the boy even skipping school to see the Naval officer, the affidavit said.
After the boy blocked him, Martinez allegedly continued trying to contact him — leaving several voicemails from phones traced back to the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command where he worked.
Martinez was arrested at his residence in Oak Harbor, Washington, on Friday and charged with third-degree rape of a minor, commercial exploitation of a minor and engaging in immoral communications with a minor, Task & Purpose reports.
He initially remained silent — before allegedly telling police: “I never slept with a minor, let alone rape.”
Under Washington state law, third-degree rape of a child is sexual intercourse with a minor between 14 and 16 by someone at least four years older, the report noted.
Martinez was out on bail Monday, despite concerns that he posed a potential flight risk because he owns property in Maryland and received recent orders to relocate there, according to Task & Purpose.
He remains assigned to the Fleet Readiness Center Northwest as an investigation continues, a spokesperson for the Naval Air Systems Command said.
“Local law enforcement has jurisdiction and we will support them and their investigation in any way possible,” the rep told Task & Purpose.
Neither the Anacortes Police Department nor the Naval Air Systems Command immediately responded to The Post’s requests for additional comment Tuesday.