By Mary O’KEEFE

On Jan. 24, 2011, Lang Patrick Martinez walked into the former Orchard Hardware Supply [3100 Foothill Blvd. in La Crescenta] and stole several items. He got into his vehicle and drove away. A California Highway Patrol unit attempted to stop Martinez’s vehicle but he did not pull over and a chase ensued. Martinez rear-ended a vehicle on La Crescenta Avenue and drove into a neighborhood in the 3700 block of Cloud Avenue, where he stopped his vehicle and fled on foot. The local Neighborhood Watch neighbors worked with police when they saw the suspect but eventually law enforcement called off the search. Then in February 2011, Martinez was spotted by Burbank police in his vehicle outside of a Target store. Officers attempted to pull him over but he again fled from them, then collided with a vehicle and fled on foot. However, this time Burbank police captured him.

There are often reports on incidents like Martinez’s that includes a suspect being arrested but seldom is there follow up on that suspect. But a few weeks ago CVW was contacted by Martinez, who said he has turned a page in his life and wants to talk.

He didn’t ask for his story to be removed from the newspaper’s website; all he wanted to do was apologize to the community and to share a bit of his story.

“I am sorry,” he started. “I was so sorry when I read I had hit an elderly couple. I was glad to read they were okay.”

Martinez said he didn’t realize what had happened during the La Crescenta and Burbank car chases.

“To be honest, when I saw the [police unit’s] lights behind me I just hit the gas,” he said. “[At that moment] you are being selfish … you are in the present moment and will go to any length to get away even though you know you won’t. I jeopardized the whole community.”

He said he only thought of himself, only thought of getting away. During that day in the Crescenta Valley, when he had eluded officers in the local neighborhood, he said he hid in an outdoor “laundry room.”

“I waited there in the corner. I heard the dogs. I stayed there until I heard the helicopter and the police leave,” he said. “Then I stole a bike and rode [away].”

He said he wasn’t aware that he had a traffic collision in either the CV or the Burbank chase. Martinez had been an addict for a very long time; in 2011 the drug he commonly used was crack cocaine, but it wasn’t the drug he had exclusively become addicted to … methamphetamine was also one of the many demons he has fought.

After he got out of jail he found himself homeless and very sick. He was in Ventura then and tried to get help at rehabilitation centers but they required insurance, which he did not have. So he cycled back into wanting to get clean and stay clean, but living on the streets wasn’t helpful in that endeavor. He said those were some of his lowest points, and there were many, where he found himself sick physically and mentally.

“I was spiritually bankrupt,” he said.

One day he found himself on Vernon and Western avenues in Los Angeles. He was very sick and had a dangerously low heart rate, and decided to get help.

“My heart was beating 17 beats a minute,” he said. “I said, ‘God if you save my life I will give it all back to you.’”

This is a promise often made in the darkest times of life but not always followed through on once there is a positive turn in circumstances; however, according to Martinez, this is a promise he wants to keep. It is a struggle every day but the difference this time is he has hope.

“There is nothing more paralyzing than an attitude that things can never change,” he wrote in an article titled “Turn the Page” in the newspaper Keys to Recovery.

Once he was released from the hospital he went through a rehabilitation program that helped him and he continues to part of that program. He now works with organizations that help those who are homeless in Ventura. On July 25 he celebrated three years from when he “turned the page.”

And now he is reading articles and finding out the things he has done – some he was aware of and some, due to his drug use, he has no memory of.

He has a long history of crimes, including abusing his wife, now his ex-wife, who has not forgiven him. He has reconnected with some family members but others are still not ready to forgive much less forget.

He said he just wanted to apologize for “terrorizing” the foothills community.

“I am accountable and responsible for what took place, not because I was a drug addict,” he said. “I don’t make excuses.”