Latina Actress Pleads Guilty in “Sham Marriage” Case

Latina Actress Pleads Guilty in “Sham Marriage” Case

Published 28, 2011 Updated on January 28, 2011 at 4:44 pm january

A Mexico City-born actress-model whoever test on fees of participating in a marriage that is”green-card ended in a hung jury pleaded accountable Friday to federal costs of lying to immigration officials.

Maria Fernanda Romero Martinez, 28, of Westwood — who uses the phase title Fernanda Romero — and Kent Ross, additionally 28, of Park Los Angeles Brea, had been initially faced with federal wedding fraud and making false statements during her application for a card that is green.

Their test in Los Angeles federal court finished final September in a mistrial after jurors stated that deliberations had become too aggressive to carry on.

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Since that time, Romero and Ross decided to just just what prosecutors call a “package deal” for which both would plead bad to split up but comparable fees of lying to officials that are federal their wedding.

In court Friday, U.S. District Judge Manuel L. Real asked Romero if she had been certainly bad.

“Yes, i will be, your honor,” Romero replied.

Real set 25 for Romero’s sentencing april. He additionally set a Feb. 4 hearing on Ross’ expected bad plea.

A maximum is carried by the charges of 5 years in jail, possible fines of $250,000 and 3 years of supervised launch for every single defendant, Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Left said.

The situation hinged on whether Romero paid Ross to marry her and then lied in regards to the relationship to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration solutions so she could obtain resident status that is permanent.

Prosecutors claim the set had been located in split houses and dating other folks once they tied the knot.

” It ended up being a fraudulence and a sham . entirely to get a card that is green” Left told the jury this past year, arguing that the couple never ever lived together nor had any intention of accomplishing therefore, and that Romero paid Ross $5,000 to marry her.

Defense lawyer Michael T. Shannon countered that after the few got hitched in June 2005, these people were “head over heels in love.”

The investigation started whenever certainly one of Romero’s ex-boyfriends, fashion professional photographer Markus Klinko, alleged in a lawsuit that is unrelated the wedding of Romero and Ross had been bogus.

Romero has starred in tv shows and films, including “The Eye” alongside Jessica Alba in 2008 as well as in the soap that is mexican “Eternamente Tuya” (“Forever Yours”). She’s got additionally hosted the Univision Spanish-language reality show “Control.”

Ross described himself while the supervisor of a pizza restaurant and a musician that is working played in a band called The Electrical Uh-Oh.

Romero and Ross declined remark after Friday’s hearing.

That’s an event that checks out real for survivors who didn’t think these were at an increased risk. Beatriz describes, “Sometimes we be in a bubble of a global realm of ‘I’m safe.’ Because — perhaps I’m well-educated, or even I’m safe we you live in a rape tradition, by which none of us are really safe. because we reside in a good neighbor hood … unfortunately,” intimate attack sometimes happens to anyone.

Beatriz, who had been also an administrator producer regarding the Light for the Moon, states this woman is incredibly proud and grateful to be playing not just quite strong Latina figures, but quirky and odd forms of Latinas. In the past these roles had been usually extremely one-dimensional: she jokes about stumbling on programs just like the ’80s sitcom I Married Dora — about an abundant white guy marrying his Hispanic maid — and being excited, because at the least it possessed a Latina lead!

Luckily, contemporary functions tend to be more multifaceted, much like Beatriz herself — an intelligent, Dolly Parton-loving, queer girl with ferocious wit, and a talent for strange voices. Latinas are simply since diverse as every other band of people, and Beatriz states representing that complexity in movie as well as on television is key.

In addition to her two envelope-pushing functions as Bonnie and Rosa, the actress has starred in You’re Not You (opposite Hilary Swank and Josh Duhamel), in Netflix’s Pee-wee’s Big getaway, plus in Ice Age: Collision Course.

In 2010, fans won’t like to miss Beatriz within the heartwarming, hilarious, and whimsical buddy that is female Half Magic, now in theaters. The film, written and directed by Heather Graham, does not shy out of the subject of empowered feminine sex.

“It’s really sweet, it is actually sweet, and a tiny bit raunchy,” Beatriz says. Seems like our types of film.

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