Raleigh City Council member Saige Martin has resigned after being accused of sexual assault and misconduct by four N.C. State students, as detailed in a News & Observer investigation published Friday.
Martin, 29, denied the most serious accusations to the N&O. He did not respond to the INDY‘s request for comment.
Martin was one of the city’s first two openly gay council members elected last fall after defeating incumbent Kay Crowder. He spearheaded the Council’s backroom plot to cancel citizen advisory councils and has been a vocal advocate of defunding the police department.
The allegations accuse Martin of “predatory” behavior between 2018 and 2019 when he was studying for a master’s degree at N.C. State University and running his campaign for city council. Four men, all current or former N.C. State students, shared details of nonconsensual sex acts and inappropriate text messages sent by Martin. Three of the men were not named in the story for fear of retaliation. One of the men was 17 at the time of his encounter with Martin.
We’ll let the N&O‘s exhaustive reporting on this story speak for itself. Read it here.
Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin said Martin resigned Friday afternoon.
“I am shocked by the allegations made against Councilor Saige Martin. He has offered and I have accepted his resignation,” Baldwin wrote in a Facebook post. “Any type of unwanted sexual behavior is unacceptable and cannot be tolerated or excused, especially when perpetrated by someone in a position of influence or power. I commend the survivors for the courage to come forward to tell their stories.”
This is a developing story.
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The mayor, Saige’s drinking buddy, is shocked. She brought him to the table. And the poor old Indy backed them both — Saige was “fun,” MAB was “notorious.” Well, Saige was a fraud and worse right from the jump. MAB is definitely notorious, but you don’t seem to know why.
Martin’s reputation was apparently one of the worst secrets in the Raleigh political scene as well as within LGBT circles. Indy recently acknowledged failure to pursue the Brewery Bhavana matter, that paired with newly reported but looks to be an old story (Martin’s predatory behavior), raises questions. Especially in light of Indy’s promotion of Martin’s campaign and agenda, and the Bhavana cover-up, did Indy cover this story up also?