Latina Actress Pleads Guilty in “Sham Marriage” Case

Posted January 28, 2011 Updated on January 28, 2011 at 4:44 pm

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

Maria Fernanda Romero Martinez, 28, of Westwood — whom utilizes the phase title Fernanda Romero — and Kent Ross, additionally 28, of Park La Brea, were initially faced with federal wedding fraudulence and making false statements during her application for the green card.

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

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Ever since then, Romero and Ross decided to exactly exactly what prosecutors call a “package deal” in which both would plead bad to split up but comparable costs of lying to officials that are federal their marriage.

In court Friday, U.S. District Judge Manuel L. Real asked Romero if she ended up being certainly bad.

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

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

The costs carry a optimum of 5 years in jail, prospective fines of $250,000 and 36 months of supervised launch for every defendant, Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Left said.

The outcome 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 permanent resident status.

Prosecutors claim the pair had been staying in split domiciles and dating other individuals if they tied the knot.

” It in fact was a fraudulence and a sham . entirely to have 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 performing therefore, and that Romero paid Ross $5,000 to marry her.

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

The research started when certainly one of Romero’s ex-boyfriends, fashion professional photographer Markus Klinko, alleged in an unrelated lawsuit that the marriage of Romero and Ross had been bogus.

Romero has starred in shows and films, including “the attention” alongside Jessica Alba in 2008 plus in the soap that is mexican “Eternamente Tuya” (“Forever Yours”). She has additionally hosted the Univision Spanish-language reality show “Control.”

Ross described himself whilst 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 reads real for survivors whom did think they were n’t in danger. Beatriz describes, “Sometimes we be in a bubble of the 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 I are now living in a great neighbor hood … unfortunately,” intimate attack sometimes happens to anybody.

Beatriz, who had been also a professional producer regarding the Light regarding the Moon, states she actually is exceedingly grateful and proud to be playing not merely quite strong Latina figures, but quirky and odd kinds of Latinas. These roles were often very one-dimensional: she jokes about stumbling on shows like the ’80s sitcom I Married Dora — about a rich white man marrying his Hispanic maid — and being excited, because at least it had a Latina lead in the past!

Happily, contemporary functions tend to be more multifaceted, just like Beatriz herself — a sensible, Dolly Parton-loving, queer girl with ferocious wit, and a skill for strange voices. Latinas are only because diverse as just about any selection of individuals, and Beatriz claims representing that complexity in movie as well as on TV is key.

Regardless of her two roles that are envelope-pushing 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, as well as in Ice Age: Collision Course.

This season, fans won’t wish to miss Beatriz within the heartwarming, hilarious, and whimsical feminine friend film Half Magic, now in theaters. The movie, written and directed by Heather Graham, does not shy out of the subject of empowered sexuality that is female.

“It’s really attractive, it is really sweet, and a small bit raunchy,” Beatriz says. Feels like our form of movie.