If you ask our opinion, the Man of the Year in Lawrence is José “Bugzy” Martínez.
Deaths from opioid-related overdoses have dominated the headlines of multiple publications in recent years. The victims were those people who felt dominated by the addiction, unable to reject it due to lack of willpower.
Will power is what our Man of the Year, José “Bugzy” Martínez, has shown to free him from that evil.
The desperation led him to try to rob an establishment, was surprised by the police and brought before a judge who sentenced him to 2 and half years of probation.
The vice got the better of him, he used drugs again, and this time he called Gene Musgrade, his probation officer in Lawrence’s court, and confessed his crime. “I was desperate, I wanted to leave that vice but on my own, I would never succeed.”
Officer Musgrade presented him to the judge, who verified that he had violated the parole order, this time he sent him to Middleton Jail to complete the 2 and a half years of the original sentence.
After 8 months locked in Block #110 in Middleton, where he sweated, cried and prayed a lot trying to break the vice, he was visited by a counselor guard. He wanted to know if Bugzy would be interested in joining a new program for drug addicts called SATCO (Substance Abuse Treatment Co-Ofenders).
He was transferred to Block 80BED together with 80 other prisoners. There they received therapy from NA-AA (Narcotics Anonymous-Alcoholics Anonymous) that helped them to say NO to drugs. It also helped him a lot to talk about his problems with other prisoners.
One day, at the guards’ request, he went with 5 other prisoners to help distribute food to the prisoners in Block 240A, where there were 120 men, 2 in each cell, some very violent, indeed. Many accepted the trays of food; others, rejected them violently, and even spat on them, insulting them with names and bad words.
After the assignment, back to their Block, they suddenly stopped and looked at each other, first in silence; “We felt that something was happening to us. After that experience with these men we realized that we were not like them anymore, that we had changed,” said Bugzy.
“I finished my sentence and I have never returned to drugs”, expressed proudly.
In 2010, José “Bugzy” Martínez and his wife Daisy established their own gym at 250 Canal Street, in Lawrence. In addition to training boxers, the Lawrence SWAT team trains there.
This is the story in detail of how Bugzy fought to overcome the vice of the drug. In the December 22, 2018 edition, page 11, Rumbo collected the Story of his Life on Canvas, during an exhibition of original paintings presented at Lawrence Heritage State Park.
Bugzy was born in Lawrence, educated in our public schools, surrounded by the same ailments that this society offers, including temptations, and that eventually led him down the wrong path.
He showed weakness for falling into drug adiction, but in turn, showed an incredible strength of character to get out of it. That’s why we consider him Lawrence’s Man of the Year. Let his example serve others!
