A Sterling man being held in the Whiteside County Jail on a 2022 arson and home invasion case now faces additional charges that accuse him of assaulting a jailer.

Prosecutors allege that the assault occurred during a scuffle that arose between the man, several jailers and two other inmates who refused to go back into their cells and were later charged.

Matthew Martinez, 30, has been charged with aggravated battery of a police officer and an attempt to disarm a police officer in connection with the Sept. 11 disturbance at the Whiteside County Jail in Morrison, according to court documents. Both are Class 2 felonies.

Martinez pleaded not guilty to the charges Monday, Dec. 1, during a preliminary hearing at the Whiteside County Courthouse in Morrison.

Whiteside County sheriff’s Deputy Jacob Noble testified Monday that around 6:30 p.m. Sept. 11 he was summoned to provide assistance in a cell block at the jail.

Noble said Martinez was in the shower and was facing punitive action for an alleged jail violation. Two other jail inmates, who were standing at the other end of the block, were told to go back into their jail cells but refused to comply, Noble said.

As jailers attempted to get those two back into their cells, Martinez pushed Noble in the arm, Noble testified. Martinez then turned his attention to Deputy Stephen York and another inmate. Noble said York pulled his Taser on Martinez, and while it deployed and one probe made contact with Martinez, it did not have an effect on Martinez. That’s when Noble deployed his own Taser to subdue Martinez, Noble testified.

Martinez will next appear in court on those charges on Dec. 17.

He has been held in the Whiteside County Jail in connection with a December 2022 case charging him with entering a Sterling home, stabbing two people there and then setting a fire that damaged the home and an attached garage.

He is charged in that case with home invasion causing injury, aggravated domestic battery, aggravated battery causing great bodily harm, aggravated arson knowing people are present, residential arson and arson. The most serious of the charges are Class X felonies that can carry decades in prison if convicted.

He will next appear in court on those charges at 9 a.m. Jan. 28.

Two other inmates, Michael Cover and Ronald Lewis, also were charged in the Sept. 11 scuffle.

Cover, 32, is charged with aggravated battery of a police officer, a Class 2 felony, and obstructing a police officer, a Class A misdemeanor, in connection with the disturbance. He has pleaded not guilty and is to next appear in court on Dec. 17.

He has been held in the jail in connection with a March 2024 case accusing him of entering a Sterling home earlier that month, sexually assaulting a woman at knifepoint and threatening to kill her.

Charges in that case accuse him of aggravated criminal sex assault with a weapon; aggravated criminal sex assault with bodily harm; criminal sexual assault involving force; home invasion with a dangerous weapon; home invasion involving a sex offense; two counts of domestic battery causing bodily harm with at least four previous convictions; aggravated criminal sexual abuse involving a weapon; and aggravated criminal sexual abuse resulting in bodily harm. He is to appear in court for a pretrial conference in that case on Dec. 17.

Lewis, 37, of Chicago, was charged with misdemeanor obstruction of a correctional institution employee. That charge was dismissed Nov. 19 as part of his guilty plea in a September 2023 case accusing him of possessing drugs and a weapon, according to court documents. He pleaded guilty to one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm.

As part of that plea, four Class X felonies – delivery of 400 to 900 grams of methamphetamine, aggravated delivery of 100-plus grams of methamphetamine; being an armed habitual criminal and possession of 400 to 900 grams of methamphetamine – were dismissed as were one count of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and one count of not having a valid FOID card.

Sentencing in that case is set for 11 am. Jan. 7.