Wake County
Raleigh City Council member accused of ‘predatory’ encounters
Four men, including two current college students, have accused Raleigh City Council member Saige Martin of sexual misconduct. Two say Martin sexually assaulted them. Martin mostly disputes the misconduct allegations and specifically denies the assaults.
The incidents allegedly occurred in 2018 and 2019, including when Martin, now 29, was running for City Council.
All four accusers who spoke to The News & Observer are current or former students at N.C. State University, where Martin was working on his master’s degree in art and design from 2017 until 2019. He was also a teaching assistant for an introductory course in the N.C. State College of Design from August 2018 to May 2019.
The N&O interviewed the two students and two graduates in person, on the phone or through video conference calls and knows their identities. Three agreed to tell their stories under the condition that their names not be reported because they feared retribution from Martin and his supporters and they worried about the ramifications and stigma of telling their stories. Two also said they have not yet told all of their friends and family that they are LGBTQ. That made them more reticent to disclose their identities and their stories.
One of the men, Juni Cuevas, agreed to tell his story publicly.
“I thought about it and I think it’s in the public’s best interest and my moral conscience to go public,” he said in a text message to The N&O.
Two men, including Cuevas, described receiving Grindr messages from Martin and then meeting him for dates that they said began with consensual contact and ended with them being physically restrained and forced into unwanted sexual acts.
One student, who was 17 years old at the time, described meeting Martin at a campus event in 2019, receiving explicit messages from Martin later that day and feeling pressured to engage in a sexual act in an on-campus parking lot.
Another student said he received flirtatious text messages from Martin while he was the student’s teaching assistant. Text messages reviewed by The N&O show that shortly after the semester ended, Martin offered to pay the student to come to his house and cuddle with him.
Accusers haven’t filed police reports
None of the accusers filed police reports or reported Martin to NCSU authorities.
Mary Pike Cole, an NCSU University Communications staff member, said she was unable to say whether specific complaints have been made against Martin.
“We cannot provide information about individual students or employees or whether there are complaints about a specific individual,” she said.
After the alleged sexual assaults, both men described the incidents to friends who have been interviewed by The N&O. The accusers said they are coming forward now after learning that their situations were not isolated incidents.
Martin denied the most serious allegations in an interview with The N&O and says he is being targeted by a group.
“I am not saying there is a massive plot to take me down,” he said. “That is not what I am saying.”
He paused.
“The core (allegation) that I ever restrained someone,” he said. “That I have ever held my hand over someone’s mouth. It’s simply, simply not true.”
Martin said he has been sexually assaulted in the past and “wants to believe any allegations that come forward” but that he wants a chance to learn more about the allegations against him.
The N&O submitted several follow-up questions to Martin on Wednesday night that had not been answered by Friday morning.
Martin was elected to the Raleigh City Council in October. He represents District D, which includes N.C. State University and the southwest portion of Raleigh and listed his occupation as a nonprofit fund director during the campaign.
Martin is one of Raleigh’s first two openly LGBTQ council members elected to the board in 2019.
Accusation of forcible assault
Cuevas, 30, graduated from N.C. State University and lived in North Carolina for nearly 20 years.
He recently moved back to California to pursue his dreams of cooking, acting and performing in drag shows and to be closer to his mother who was deported to nearby Mexico nine years ago.
The News & Observer wrote about Cuevas and his mother when he appeared on the television show “MasterChef” in 2018.
He said he knew of Martin, but the two hadn’t met in person until July 2019.
Martin asked Cuevas to attend the Crape Myrtle Festival Grand Gala in downtown Raleigh with him on July 27, 2019, but Cuevas declined, according to a screenshot Cuevas provided to The N&O. He did agree to meet Martin for dinner after the gala.
The dinner date was at a downtown Raleigh restaurant, but Martin allegedly changed plans when Cuevas arrived at the restaurant. Martin said they could get drinks at the bar instead of having dinner, Cuevas said.
He’d previously told Martin he’d just been through a break-up with his long-term boyfriend and he was in a “dark place.”
“I feel like he took advantage of that,” Cuevas said in a phone interview with The N&O. “He’d say ‘You’re so pretty. So perfect. So this. So that.’ And obviously the compliments were nice. I’d just been rejected by someone who I thought loved me.”
The restaurant was in the same building as Martin’s apartment, something Cuevas said he didn’t know before agreeing to meet there. Martin asked if they could go upstairs to let his dogs out. They started walking toward the elevator when he said Martin pushed him up against the wall and tried to kiss him on his face and neck.
Cuevas said Martin was “under the influence,” and he told Martin he didn’t want to make out in a public space like the hallway, and they continued to Martin’s apartment.
“As soon as we walk in, he slams the door behind me,” Cuevas said. “And he, like, pushes me against the door and is trying to make out with me. … He tries to take my clothes off, and I say ‘I’m not in the mood for that.’ ”
They stopped, and Cuevas said he tried to have a conversation with Martin, who continued to give him compliments and bring up his ex-boyfriend.
“He knew I’d gone through this,” he said. “I’d been rejected, and he was making me feel special and it worked.”
The two started to have anal sex when Cuevas asked Martin if he had a condom. Martin allegedly said multiple times he didn’t need one.
“I’m not having sex with you without a condom,” Cuevas said. “I don’t know you like that.”
He said Martin told him he “wasn’t any fun,” so Cuevas said Martin could give him a back massage.
Without permission, he said, Martin poured hot oil on Cuevas’ back as part of the massage and then tried to initiate anal intercourse with him. Cuevas said he told Martin he didn’t want to have sex with him without a condom.
“As I go to push him back, he grabs my arms and locks them behind my back, and then he penetrates me,” Cuevas said. “At this point I don’t know what’s going through my mind. … I didn’t want to consider it sexual assault because I don’t want to deal with the trauma that comes with it.”
He told some friends who encouraged him to speak out, but he felt conflicted about interfering with Martin’s campaign for City Council.
“He’s running for office, and I feel bad as an LGBT person (because) having that representation on City Council would have been better,” Cuevas said. “The way I saw it is, what is one sacrifice for the greater good?”
‘Queer community is a multifaceted place’
Martin says he remembers the interaction, but he insisted the assault didn’t happen.
When asked to explain why the accuser is telling a different story, Martin said he couldn’t explain on the record because it would “look petty in the paper.”
The N&O asked again for an explanation and Martin said, “The queer community is a multifaceted place where we come after one another when we don’t like the way one group is doing one thing.”
“And my understanding of the situation and the individuals who are involved in these allegations is it stems from two individuals that I went on dates with that are all part of the same friend group,” Martin said. “And whom (sic) were upset when there was drama within the friend group about me being involved.”
The allegations “pop up” when a certain faction within the queer community feel he is not being progressive enough,” Martin said.
“They pop up whenever there is a progressive issue they feel I am not progressive enough on, right?” Martin said. “It’s not every day of the week, ‘Saige Martin is a sexual predator. Saige Martin is sexually assaulting people. Why isn’t the news taking it up?’ It’s ‘Oh look, it’s police misconduct. And Saige Martin is a bootlicker and by the way a sexual predator.’ They are always tying it to something they feel I am not being progressive enough.”
In a follow-up interview with The N&O, Cuevas said he wasn’t aware of the drama Martin referenced. Their “friend circle” didn’t and doesn’t overlap, he said.
“I stand by my word with regard to what happened,” he said. “I know what is true to me. If he wants to deny, that’s on his conscience. … I don’t know what he may have going on with other people but my story is what I told you.”
Current events, including the local debate over police funding, was not a factor in his decision to come forward, Cuevas said.
Second assault accusation
A 24-year-old NC State graduate who asked to remain nameless said Martin messaged him multiple times on Grindr, an online dating app, before he agreed to a date at his off-campus apartment in spring 2019.
“We start kissing and having oral sex, and I tell him I am not comfortable taking it further,” the then-22-year-old said in an interview with The N&O. “Like I don’t want intercourse, specifically.”
At first, he said, Martin backed off, but he then tried to persuade him and repeatedly asked to have anal sex. At one point, the man said, Martin got on top of him and asked if they could have intercourse. The man said he told him no.
“He covers my mouth and he holds me down,” he said. “He forces himself and he goes, ‘Just keep breathing. Keep breathing. You’ll be fine.’ And he does that for almost two minutes, and I’m resisting and pushing back.”
The student said he was in shock and Martin left his apartment soon after. They haven’t communicated since, he said. The student told The N&O he didn’t want to file a police report afterward because he was not completely “out” as LGBTQ, and as an international student, he said, he wasn’t sure what qualifies as an assault.
The N&O spoke to two friends of his to verify his story. One was another international N.C. State University student who graduated in 2018. The woman asked to be referred to by her initials, M.A., because she lives in a country where being gay is against the law, and she worries about the repercussions of being identified in relation to this situation.
The student who says Martin assaulted him described the details of the alleged assault to his friend on two separate occasions, including when they were both in Raleigh and when he was visiting her in her home country.
“Saige covered his mouth and was telling him ‘to relax and breathe and relax.’ I’m having goosebumps just by saying it. It’s so disgusting and sickening,” M.A. said, referring to the allegations shared with her by her friend.
‘No means no’: Martin denies assault
In an interview with The N&O, Martin said the assault did not happen.
“No means no,” he said. “I don’t … there isn’t a line for me about if someone says no that it’s an if or maybe.”
Martin said he rarely messaged someone on Grindr to meet up with them for a sexual encounter. There have been people who used his photos to “catfish” — meaning using fake photos or someone else’s photos to trick others into believing they are someone else — and sending “horrible things” to people on Grindr, he said.
He would be out of town and friends would message him asking if he was on Grindr in Raleigh when the app is based on the cell phone location, he said.
There were times during the 2019 campaign when he’d hear of people using his photos on dating apps, when he wasn’t on any dating applications, Martin said.
Martin sent photos of his face in a Grindr message to Cuevas on July 12, 2019, and Cuevas asked him how the campaign for city council was going, according to a screenshot shared by Cuevas and reviewed by The News & Observer.
“It’s … Going. Exhausting.” said Martin, according to the screenshots.
“Would be great if you didn’t tell people I’m on here (by the way),” said Martin, according to the screenshots. “I’m very discreet about it given the campaign.”
In a follow-up interview, the international student said he was positive he was communicating with Martin and that Martin was the man who came to his apartment.
Two years later, the student said he tries not to think about the incident but says it has affected his physical relationships with others. After graduating with a degree with computer engineering, he returned to his home country.
“I was surprised that this happened to other people,’ he said. “I thought this was an isolated incident. That’s what really pushed me to speak out and share my experience. Because we need to put a stop to this man, and we need to make sure other people are not hurt.”
Social media backlash
Noah Riley, who uses they/them pronouns, knows both men who say Martin sexually assaulted them. Riley recently graduated from N.C. State University and still lives in the Triangle. After Martin was elected in October, Riley tweeted that Martin wasn’t a good representative of the LGBTQ community on the city council.
Martin responded to the tweet from his campaign Twitter account in December and asked Riley in a direct message why Riley was upset and if they’d be willing to meet, according to screenshots Riley provided to The N&O.
“You’ve upset me by assaulting one of my friends and sending disgusting messages to multiple others,” Riley wrote to Martin, according to a screenshot. “Meeting to talk would be pointless, nothing you can say will change how I feel because you’ve shown who you are through your actions.”
In an interview with The N&O, Riley confirmed the one assault he was talking about in the message to Martin was the international student’s claim against Martin.
Martin responded that he’d never heard of an assault allegation against him before but “obviously take(s) that incredibly seriously.” He asked again if Riley would like to talk to him.
“I think if we had the chance to talk you’d understand me a bit better,’ Martin said, according to screenshots of the exchange provided to The N&O. “Doesn’t mean you’d like me any more (sic) but perhaps just understand who I am. I’m always working to be better and it’s been a rough year personally. So I’m doing a lot of work now to move forward.”
In an interview with The N&O, Martin said he confronted someone on Twitter “last summer” who said Martin had assaulted one of his friends.
“And then they had no more information to back it up,” he said, adding that the profile had either been deleted or he’d been blocked from the account.
After The N&O described the conversation between Martin and Riley based on the screenshots, Martin said he believed it was the same conversation.
BEHIND OUR REPORTING
Why did we report this story?
In late 2019, a student at N.C. State University contacted The News & Observer and staff writer Anna Johnson and said City Council member Saige Martin, the student’s former teaching assistant, had offered him money to cuddle with him.
The student did not want the newspaper to publish the information or even take the complaint to Martin. He only wanted to let the reporter covering the Raleigh City Council know what he said had happened.
In recent weeks, after more allegations surfaced on social media, the student said he was now willing to publicly share his story, though only if his name did not get published because he feared retribution from Martin and his supporters and he worried about the ramifications and stigma of telling his story.
Soon three more people agreed to speak with Johnson, including two who said Martin had forced them into unwanted sex.
The #MeToo movement has refocused attention on sexual misconduct and the importance of believing those who come forward. But the news media also has a responsibility to corroborate claims and to give those being accused a chance to respond.
Johnson spent weeks talking with nearly two dozen people, obtaining social media posts, reviewing screenshots of conversations and, after similarities in the accusers’ stories emerged, speaking with Martin by phone, text and email for hours over three days. She contacted city and N.C. State officials who either said they had not heard the allegations or could not comment on them.
When people bring serious accusations to our news team, especially against people in authority and other public figures, we have a duty to investigate them and fairly and accurately report our findings. That is what this story does.
’Doesn’t get a pass because he’s a queer person’
The N&O contacted Riley on Twitter in June after seeing the tweet about Martin and Riley’s responses to a now-viral tweet about Martin and the Raleigh Police Department’s budget.
At the request of The N&O for corroboration, Riley posted a message on their Instagram story, which deletes after 24 hours, asking for people willing to speak to The N&O about Martin.
The two people who claim that Martin sexually assaulted them, including Cuevas, contacted The N&O and agreed to talk about those incidents.
Both the international student and Cuevas said they didn’t know there were other allegations until the post had been shared.
The N&O interviewed one of the people Cuevas told after the encounter with Martin and he confirmed many of the details of the evening.
Jeremy Davitt, who lives in Raleigh, said Cuevas told him about the alleged assault shortly after it occurred. Cuevas asked to use protection, Davitt said, but “Saige still forced himself on him.”
“He was definitely traumatized by the attack,” Davitt said. “It definitely shocked him, and he didn’t really know what to do.”
Davitt said he sent Riley’s Instagram story to Cuevas to give him the opportunity to share his story, if he wanted to.
Davitt couldn’t say whether these allegations were coming up because there were certain people who felt Martin wasn’t progressive enough on various issues, he said. Davitt hasn’t met Martin or communicated with him, he said.
“As a queer person, I think it’s very important that we hold each other accountable and for being one of the first people elected as an LGBTQ person to city council, I think everyone needs to be held accountable for their actions,” Davitt said. “Saige Martin doesn’t get a pass because he’s a queer person.”
Freshman says Martin pursued him
Martin’s Twitter message to Riley was similar to a text message he sent to another student after that student posted about Martin on Reddit in February, according to screenshots submitted to the N&O.
The student, a then-18-year-old college freshman, was taking an introductory course in the N.C. State School of Design in the fall semester of 2018. Martin was a TA for the course.
The student said Martin sent flirtatious messages on Instagram and texted him messages like “hey beautiful” or “hey pretty” that the student said made him feel “wildly uncomfortable” though not in danger.
During the semester, the student agreed to meet with Martin one-on-one to talk about politics and working internationally. The student said he’d hoped Martin could become a mentor to him.
“We met up for coffee because I wanted to pick his brain about working in politics because at the time I was interested in working with the (United Nations), which he’d previously done,” the student said. “He was really insistent that we go to his place instead. He kept saying he had a better espresso machine at his place. I just thought it was really weird, and we didn’t end up doing that.”
While his teaching assistant, Martin texted the student asking him to come out one night. The student said he wasn’t sure because it was finals season.
“Hmm then I’ll have to grade you poorly,” Martin said in a text message reviewed by The N&O. “Lack of effort.”
The student responded it was a good thing the professor reviewed the grades, to which Martin replied it was a “good thing” the professor did whatever he wanted him to do.
In another text message in January 2019, after the class ended, Martin asked what the student was doing. When the student said “partying,” Martin replied “boo” and the student asked “why?”
“I’d pay you alot (sic) of money to cuddle me haha you can keep all your clothes on,” Martin wrote in a text message reviewed by The N&O. “And no one needs to know. It’s a triple win win.”
Martin followed up saying the student could “still say no” and “no pressure.” The student didn’t respond, and Martin texted later he’d still like to hang out with the student and hear about his finals.
When The N&O brought up the student, Martin was silent for nearly a minute before answering whether the allegation was true.
“To the person who was my student, yes,” he said. “But there’s far more to that story. And I think they are not ...”
He took another pause.
“I was in a very dark place personally and emotionally and frankly was just lonely,” Martin said. “And I know they … I had since apologized for what I said to them.”
The student said he didn’t want to report the inappropriate text messages because he “didn’t want to mess (Martin’s) life up.”
The student reached out to the N&O shortly before the October 2019 election, but did not wish to go public with his story.
In February 2020, the student said he commented anonymously on Reddit that Martin was “a predatory dude” and Martin hit on his students while a TA. After seeing the post, The N&O contacted the Reddit user and learned it was the same student who spoke to the N&O previously.
He said that Martin sent him a text message a day after the Reddit comment was posted.
“I’m disappointed I hurt you and hit on you when I was weak and I’m sorry,” Martin said in a screenshot of the text reviewed by The N&O, adding that he was depressed. He said he didn’t expect the student to “out” him on a public thread.
“You can say what you want wherever you want, that’s your right,” Martin texted the student. “I violated your trust. But I am not a predator. I just liked you as a person.”
The student declined again to share his story publicly in February.
In early June, the student, now 19, contacted The N&O saying he’d be willing to share his story after he learned his encounter wasn’t an isolated incident. He said another student had contacted him through social media with a similar story.
This was before the N&O had reached out to Riley about their tweet.
‘I felt very uncomfortable’
That student described meeting Martin on N.C. State’s campus while Martin was running for City Council in fall 2019. The then-17-year-old student had arrived on campus a few weeks earlier and was checking out student organizations. He attended a club meeting that featured Martin as a speaker and introduced himself to Martin after the meeting.
“I was really inspired by someone in the Latinx community and queer community in Raleigh,” the student said in an interview with The N&O. “I was like, ‘Oh my goodness. This is the future. This is so important.’”
He expressed interest in working with Martin’s campaign. The student followed him on his campaign Instagram account.
“A couple of hours later, I get private messages on Instagram that’s like ‘Oh I want to date you,” the student said. “He was talking about accomplishments I had, and he gave me his personal cell phone number.”
In an interview with The N&O, Martin says it was a “mutual attraction until learning they were not 18.”
In a screenshot of the exchange sent to The N&O from the student, Martin says “Are you dating anyone?” The student responded that he wasn’t and that he’d soon be turning 18.
“Ummmm sign me up!,” Martin responds. “IDK (I don’t know) if I’m your type but I would date you in a (expletive) second you’re gorgeous.”
The student was caught off guard but flattered, and said maybe they could grab food and “naively” texted him, he said.
“I wasn’t disgusted at the proposition in the (direct messages), but I did not invite it,” he said. ”Once it was there, it did initially make me feel good. Like ‘’Oh I have been noticed. Someone important has noticed me and thinks I am cool.’”
Over the next 48 hours, the text messages from Martin to the student were sexual in nature, the student said. The student was unable to provide screenshots of those messages saying he’d recently gotten a new phone and lost his old text messages.
The student said he told Martin he was not interested in a sexual relationship. He did respond to explicit messages sent by Martin, but said he tried to steer the conversation away from sex.
A question of consent
Two days after they met, Martin asked if he could meet the student off-campus. The student agreed.
Just before they were supposed to meet, Martin texted him saying he only had five minutes but wanted to see the student, according to a screenshot sent to The N&O. Martin picked him up and took him to an on-campus parking lot, the student said.
After a brief conversation, the student said Martin initiated a sexual act. The 17-year-old said he told Martin the public setting — a crowded parking lot — made him uncomfortable. The student declined to provide details about the sexual act other than Martin performed it on the student.
“I felt very uncomfortable, but I had prior experiences with this sort of deal where consent is treated as a negotiation versus an open conversation,” he said. “So I made the personal choice that going along with it would be the key to my safety and make me more comfortable and get me out of the car because I know at any point that door could lock. And it could go much worse.”
When the N&O described the details of this allegation, Martin said ‘No,’ before remaining silent for nearly 20 seconds.
“I am just trying to process all this,” Martin said. “I mean I don’t have anything to say. If someone told me they were uncomfortable in a second I would stop what I am doing. And so to have these allegations you know is certainly causing, I don’t even know what the word is. Reflection? But it’s, I don’t know. I tend to think I am an empathic and connected individual who can tell what people are thinking.”
The student said the two didn’t meet again in person because he felt unsafe being around Martin. Screenshots of messages provided to the N&O show the two did continue to text occasionally after the incident. The student said he would try to push the conversation to a professional or romantic conversation, but Martin would often respond with sexual requests or demands.
The student didn’t want to come forward with an official complaint either to the school or police because he didn’t want to “ruin” Martin’s campaign.
“I thought it was a one-off, unfortunate situation, and I didn’t want to take out a budding politician who I believed could make genuine change,” he said.
‘I am stunned’
During an interview with The N&O, Martin said he struggled with “alcohol addiction” during his campaign and said he’d posted about it on Facebook.
“I’ve been sober since January which is in part because of being elected and just realizing that alcohol couldn’t play a role in my life,” he said.
In a follow-up email, The N&O asked if and how that addiction contributed to the allegations and encounters, but it has not been answered as of Friday morning.
Given Martin’s comments, The N&O reached back out to the international student. He said Martin was sober during their interaction and had driven his car to the man’s apartment.
Raleigh Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin said she was unaware of the allegations and The N&O’s questions were the first she’d heard of them.
“I am stunned,” she said. “I really have nothing else to say.”
The city of Raleigh’s code of conduct says all council members should “continuously strive to maintain the utmost standards of personal integrity, truthfulness, honesty, professionalism, transparency and fairness in carrying out their public duties, avoid any improprieties in their roles as public servants, comply with all applicable laws, rules and regulations.”
However, “few legal mechanisms exist to enforce behavior either at or away from the council table,” it reads. If a councilperson “intentionally and repeatedly fails to follow proper conduct” they may be reprimanded or formally censured by a vote of the council.
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