HOUSTON – Officer Richard Martin was a divorced father of two when he was killed during a police chase in May. Most of the estate he left behind consists of the family's house in Katy, where his 22-year-old daughter was living with her boyfriend until last Friday.
"They just came and told us we had to get out. That we were kind ofthere illegally," daughter Cynthia Martin said.
Cynthia Martin said she was ordered out by the lawyer appointed as administer of the estate, former State Representative Robert Talton, who was accompanied by her aunt Karen Taliferro. Talton said he told her she had to leave because the house was in foreclosure.
"And that the pair had a car and a truck in the driveway towed, changed the locks, and threaten to send her dog, Miss Kay, and her brother Tyler's dog, Dixie to the dog pound."
"The mother of the 12-year-old didn't find out until very late in the day Friday and called me panicked that her son's dog Dixie was going to be sent to the pound," the mother's attorney, Denyse Renee Ward, said.
Ward said the house wasn't being foreclosed, and that it belongs to Cynthia and her brother. She questions why the children's aunt, who lives in Oklahoma, was even there.
"She has no standing. She has no pecuniary, no monetary standing in this estate," Ward said.
So does the president of the Houston police union, Ray Hunt.
"I'm shocked when I heard Cynthia Martin was removed from her own house with no notice yesterday and Tyler, a 12 year old, was told if you don't get your dog today we're going to send it to the pound," Hunt said.
Robert Talton was out of town Monday, but when reached by phone, he insisted Cynthia Martin left the house voluntarily. He said foreclosure action on the property was recently halted after he interceded, and he said he asked Taliferro to be there to gather up and store possessions.
Since then, Cynthia Martin said she's been living on the street. On Sunday night she said she and her boyfriend slept in the restroom at a public park.