Doug Martin’s family sent his brain to be tested for CTE as they await police investigation

Almost five months after former NFL player Douglas Martin died while in the custody of the Oakland Police Department, his family is still waiting for answers.

That means waiting for the Oakland police to finish their investigation of the incident that led up to his death.

But it also means waiting to hear back from medical experts about whether Martin, who played for seven seasons in the NFL from 2012 to 2019, suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, a degenerative brain disease caused by repeated head trauma.

The Oaklandside has learned that Martin’s family has retained civil rights attorney John Burris to represent them.

The family is holding off, for now, on deciding whether to pursue legal action against OPD or the city, said Burris.

“I’m not presuming in this case that legal action needs to be taken until we’ve reviewed all the reports,” Burris said. “Was it a medical condition? CTE? The police? While we wait for the investigation to be completed, the cause of death is still unclear.”

Martin, an ex-running back for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Oakland Raiders, died on Oct. 18 following a “brief struggle” with OPD officers who were responding to a home break-in in the East Oakland hills. Police said Martin “became unresponsive” after being taken into custody. Medics transported him to a nearby hospital, where he later died, according to OPD. He was 36.

In an interview with The Oaklandside, Burris said Martin’s body was sent to Boston University’s Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy Center “immediately after” his death so specialists can evaluate his brain for CTE, which commonly affects athletes in contact sports, military combat veterans, and those who have undergone repeated head trauma. The disease can only be definitively diagnosed after a person has died, according to the Mayo Clinic.

The examination of Martin’s brain for CTE has yet to be completed, Burris said.

The family is still awaiting the results of OPD’s investigation into Martin’s death. The department’s Homicide Section and Internal Affairs Bureau, the Police Commission’s Community Police Review Agency, and the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office are investigating the incident.

The family is also waiting for the Alameda County Coroner’s Bureau to complete its autopsy report. According to Burris, the coroner is awaiting a toxicology scan to determine whether Martin had drugs or other substances in his body before he died. Toxicology tests generally take six to eight weeks to be completed, Burris said.

The police department has not yet made public body camera videos from the officers who detained Martin. However, Burris said that he has seen some, but not all, of the officers’ body-worn camera footage of the struggle leading up to Martin’s death.

“I did see a compilation or summary of the videos, but that doesn’t give you enough perspective on whether there was misconduct on the part of the officers,” he said.

In December, Interim OPD Chief James Beere declined to make public body camera videos from the incident, saying that because of an active investigation, the videos are exempt from a state law requiring law enforcement agencies to release footage within 45 days of a “critical incident.” 

The law, passed in 2018 by the California legislature to increase transparency and trust between the police and communities, defines a critical incident as one in which an officer fired a gun at someone, or an officer’s use of force resulted in great bodily injury or death.

Burris has also reviewed some incident reports showing which officers were present during Martin’s arrest, but details about which of the five officers may have used force are still under investigation. The officers involved in Martin’s arrest have been placed on paid administrative leave per department policy, according to OPD.

The ambiguous timeline for these reports has frustrated Burris.

“It’s disappointing to me that it’s taking this long, but for a high-profile case such as this, it’s not surprising,” he said.

The last time he heard from OPD regarding the investigation was earlier this week, but he said he hasn’t heard anything “of critical importance.”

OPD told The Oaklandside on Thursday it has “no new updates” on the investigation.

In an Oct. 20 statement, Martin’s family said he struggled with mental health issues, and his parents had called police that night seeking help.

“Feeling overwhelmed and disoriented, Doug fled his home during the night and entered a neighbor’s residence two doors down, where he was taken into custody by police,” the family said.

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