Latina Actress Pleads Guilty in “Sham Marriage” Case

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

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

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

Their trial 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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Subsequently, Romero and Ross consented to exactly what prosecutors call a «package deal» by which both would plead accountable to separate your lives but comparable fees of lying to federal officials investigating 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 April 25 for Romero’s sentencing. He additionally set a Feb. 4 hearing on Ross’ expected plea that is guilty.

A maximum is carried by the charges of five years in jail, possible fines of $250,000 and 3 years 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 set had been staying in split domiciles and dating other individuals if they tied the knot.

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

Defense lawyer Michael T. Shannon countered that whenever the few got hitched in June 2005, these were «head over heels in love.»

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

Romero has starred in tv shows and films, including «the attention» alongside Jessica Alba in 2008 plus in the Mexican soap opera «Eternamente Tuya» («Forever Yours»). She’s got additionally hosted the Univision reality that is spanish-language «Control.»

Ross described himself since 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 whom did think they were n’t in danger. Beatriz describes, “Sometimes we enter a bubble of a world of ‘I’m safe.’ Because — perhaps I’m well-educated, or even I’m safe because we reside in a beneficial neighbor hood … unfortunately, our company is located in a rape tradition, by which none of us actually are safe.” Sexual attack can occur to anybody.

Beatriz, who was simply also a professional producer regarding the Light regarding the Moon, claims this woman is exceptionally proud and grateful to be playing not merely quite strong Latina figures, but quirky and odd forms 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!

Luckily, contemporary roles tend to be more multifaceted, just like Beatriz herself — a sensible, Dolly Parton-loving, queer girl with ferocious wit, and a skill for strange sounds. Latinas are simply since diverse as any kind of band of individuals, and Beatriz states representing that complexity in film as well as on television is key.

Apart from 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, plus in Ice Age: Collision Course.

This present year, fans won’t like to miss Beatriz into the heartwarming, hilarious, and whimsical buddy that is female Half Magic, now in theaters. The movie, written and directed by Heather Graham, does not shy far from the subject of empowered sexuality that is female.

“It’s really attractive, it is actually sweet, and a bit that is little,” Beatriz says. Appears like our sort of film.