Big Sandy News
May 6, 2005

MARTIN - A group of women in several states claim a Floyd County man is an Internet gigolo and his Arkansas wife has started a Web site to warn other women to stay away from him.

Kathryn Martin of Benton, Ark., says that when she married Sam Martin III in Hot Springs in May 2004, she had no idea he had at least five other women on the side. Since the current Mrs. Martin set up her Web site, www.ceocowboyexposed.com, 40 women from across the nation have contacted her about their experiences with Martin.

Martin's daughter, April, has even posted a story about her father on the Web site and apologizes to the women he has encountered.

The women who have known Martin are forming a support group and want to tell their stories on a national talk show to warn others about Internet dating services and to expose Martin.

Five women -- two from Texas, one each from Indiana and Florida, plus Kathryn "Kat" Martin -- who have talked with The Big Sandy News tell similar stories of their encounters with Martin, whom they met through various Internet Christian dating sites and millioinairematch.com.

They say Martin was very charming, pretended to be wealthy and promised them a life of love, security and luxury.

Kat Martin said she began to suspect her husband may be cheating on her after she and her son came to Martin's home in Floyd County for Christmas last year. Martin's father had taken many pictures of the holiday which he put on a computer disk for her. Kat Martin had misplaced the disk and looked on her husband's computer, discovering a file "Christmas 2004," but the pictures did not include her or her 17-year-old son.

Kat Martin then began digging into her husband's past, she said.

"There are more women coming forward every day," Martin said Wednesday. "My Web site had 500 hits yesterday," she said. "That's the most I've ever had."

Martin is being named as the father of a child with one of the Florida women, Misty Schoff, who is currently trying to get him served with child support and paternity papers.

Schoff said Tuesday that Martin left her when she was six months pregnant.

"Six weeks later, he married Kat," Schoff said. "There were eight other women when I was with him."

Kat, Schoff and the other women, who asked to not be identified, said Martin would brag about how well his family connected politically throughout the state and that he was closely related to Attorney General Greg Stumbo.

Stumbo's spokeswoman, Vicki Glass, said Tuesday that Stumbo said "any kind of prosecution against Mr. Martin" would be handled like it would "for any other citizen."

Stumbo is a partner in First Guaranty Bank with Julius Martin, who is Sam Martin III's uncle.

Schoff said she contacted Stumbo's office about her child support issue but was told his office didn't have anything to do with the matter.

Kat Martin said that her husband is claiming she broke the law when she gained access to several of his Internet accounts.

"I figured out his password, and all I got was information," she said. "That's it. This isn't about money. It's to expose Sam for what he is and to warn other women about him."

Kat has filed for divorce and said her husband also bragged about being closely related to Floyd Commonwealth's Attorney Brent Turner.

Martin's lawyer, Bobby Rowe of Prestonsburg, who is married to Martin's sister, Beth, wrote to Kathryn Martin's divorce attorney, Edward T. Oglesby, in April 2005 that claims of identity theft and electronic fund theft against Kathryn Martin had been forwarded to the Kentucky State Police and Turner.

On Tuesday, Brent Turner said he had not talked to Rowe or anyone about any issue involving the Martins and he had only heard "talk" about the Web site. Turner did say he was related to Martin, but he didn't know how close and he didn't really know him.

Turner added that he would not be involved in a case with Martin due to the family connection and that the Martin family attended the same church as he, Allen Baptist Church.

The women claim Martin used the church as a lure for the women, who claimed he told them he had given up the corporate world in order to build churches. He specifically named the Allen church, they said.

Rowe, who was reported as representing Martin in an April 14 news story in the Arkansas Times, did not return a message seeking comment on the Web site and claims made by the women.

In a March 29 letter from Rowe to Kat Martin's Arkansas attorney, Oglesby, obtained by The Big Sandy News, Rowe wrote that Kathryn Martin "wants the milk and cow both" and insinuates he would rather fight the issue in the Kentucky courts.

"Accordingly, in the event you are able to obtain personal service on Mr. Martin we will then decide whether to make an appearance and contest jurisdiction or let you obtain your judgment and bring it to Kentucky to try to enforce it," Rowe wrote.

In Schoff's case, she found out she was pregnant by Martin after a trip to Gatlinburg, she said. Martin told her he had leukemia and would have to go to the University of Chicago for treatment but that he would "beat it." He asked Schoff not to tell his family and she agreed.

Schoff said she later found out that Martin had married Kathryn and been seeing other women during the time he was supposed to be taking chemotherapy treatments.

Martin's family claims Kat Martin is trying to blackmail him for money and have accused her of taking a $30,000 bracelet from Martin's mother, Margueritte.

Kat Martin said she did not take any jewelry and she has confirmed the family reported the bracelet stolen.

"Let them say whatever they want to, I can back up everything I'm saying," she said. "Money is the least of it. I want to warn women about this man. He needs help."

Kat Martin said the group hasn't discovered if Martin may have been married to one or more women at the same time or whether any law enforcement agency may be investigating.

The women said Martin told them he had worked on a top secret government project at an arsenal in Pine Bluff, Ark., a coal mine in Kentucky and that he had a recording contract in Nashville.

Martin downloaded songs from a link to the Floyd County Library claiming they were his recordings. The songs included, "My Friend," which he told them he wanted played at their weddings. Kat Martin said the song was played at theirs.

All the women say they are scared of Martin and want him to get some sort of psychological help. They say they have found the strength to go public with their stories after getting in touch with each other.

"He has to be stopped," Kat Martin said. "If this is what it takes, then so be it. He's contacting more women every day."