CLEVELAND — It was a big day for a new Cleveland police officer. Not only did she receive a diploma from the academy, she also received a marriage proposal from a fellow officer.
Stephanie Martinez accepted both with joy.
Martinez received her diploma from the police academy on Monday, WJW-TV reported. She was called back after the other graduates received their certificates and saw Officer Chris Porter drop to one knee with an engagement ring.
Martinez had an idea the proposal was coming. Her training at the academy sharpened her skills at ferreting out some clues.
“Once his mom told me to get my nails done, I said, ‘Chris, are you going to ask me to be your wife?’” Martinez told WKYC-TV. “And he says, ‘No, your graduation is your day’ and he lied to me.”
Martinez had actually broached the subject of a marriage proposal at the ceremony, but Porter, a veteran officer with the Cleveland Police Department, said he had to feign indignation.
“I had to be kind of harsh and said ‘No, that’s a terrible idea!’” Porter told WKYC. “I felt bad telling her that her idea was terrible, because it was my idea, but I had to do it so I could hopefully surprise her.”
For the most part, the ruse worked.
“We’re not crying, you’re crying,” the Cleveland Police Department wrote in a Facebook post. “Today, for the first time in Cleveland Police history, we had a marriage proposal during an academy graduation!!”
The two met at a barbershop at police headquarters where Porter had his weekly haircut, WKYC reported.
“She came into my life and it wasn’t very long I just knew I had to spend the rest of my life with her,” Porter told WJW.
Martinez began her career in the Cleveland Division of Police’s Second District on Tuesday.
Porter works in the employee assistance unit, focused on programs to help alleviate the stress police officers deal with. His parents were police officers, and his stepbrother, Officer David Fahey, was killed in the line of duty by a hit-and-run driver in 2017, WKYC reported.
“I’ve lived it, I kind of see how the relationship can be and how you have to separate the work,” Porter told the television station. “Stephanie sees the stress that’s in store for her and I’m glad that I can be there for her pretty much 24 hours a day, I have the skills from that unit to help her throughout her career.”
“He’s just always there for me, I love it,” Martinez told WKYC.