Hostile juror may cause mistrial for Mexican telenovela actress in US sham marriage trial

[alp227]

Remember when one juror caused former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich to be convicted of only 1 of 24 counts (the one being lying to the FBI)?

Well one juror is possibly going to cause a mistrial for the Mexican soap opera (telenovela in Spanish) actress Fernanda Romero, who's accused of marrying Kent Ross, an American pizza delivery man and musician, just to obtain a work permit in the US. CNN reports:

A female juror said the juror who is holding them up is "relying on the emotions and feelings this person has, rather than viewing the evidence."

And...

Romero and Ross were both 23 when they had a Los Angeles wedding. Only the bride's mother and a handful of others attended, but Romero said a larger wedding was impossible because he is a Mormon and she's a devout Catholic.

There was no honeymoon, which Special Assistant U.S. Attorney James Left argued was evidence of a sham marriage.

"You'd figure they could go somewhere, Palm Springs, San Diego," Left said during closing arguments Wednesday.

They did have pictures together, which the prosecution suggested were staged to show immigration officials who would decide on her green card.

When immigration agents conducted a surprise "bed check" at Romero's Los Angeles apartment in October 2007, they only found her. They later found Ross at a Hollywood apartment, they testified.

Romero testified that she really loved Ross when they got married and she intended to build a life with him. The first months were "very loving, fun," she said.

Romero stars in the telenovela El Alma Herida (The Wounded Soul), which was produced/broadcast by Telemundo in the US.

So if the US is going after a Mexican national for faking a marriage just to gain citizenship, why won't prosecutors go after Britney Spears for her 55-hour marriage? Or other dumb celebrities for their crappy marriages? Just wondering...

[Sheepshank]

1. ooops I'm sure his temple recommend

is crying in his back wallet.

[Enrique]

2. the argument is that she paid someone $5000 to marry her?

is that plausible?

[msedano]

3. Isabel's Corrido

http://labloga.blogspot.com/2010/08/festival-de-flor-y-canto-yesterday.html

see the link to read the entire masterpiece:

Martín Espada


Isabel’s Corrido

Para Isabel

Francisca said: Marry my sister so she can stay in the country.
I had nothing else to do. I was twenty-three and always cold, skidding
in cigarette-coupon boots from lamppost to lamppost through January
in Wisconsin. Francisca and Isabel washed bed sheets at the hotel,
sweating in the humidity of the laundry room, conspiring in Spanish.

I met her the next day. Isabel was nineteen, from a village where the elders
spoke the language of the Aztecs. She would smile whenever the ice pellets
of English clattered around her head. When the justice of the peace said
You may kiss the bride, our lips brushed for the first and only time.
The borrowed ring was too small, jammed into my knuckle.
There were snapshots of the wedding and champagne in plastic cups.

Francisca said: The snapshots will be proof for Immigration.

[RaleighNCDUer]

4. I like how the story is subtely weighted against her -

she married a "pizza delivery man and musician" - obviously, pizza guys are losers who make no money and would be willing to commit a crime. But if it said she married a musician - and there are damn few young musicians who don't deliver pizzas or work fast food or usher at movie theaters as day jobs - that would make him somewhat more respectable AND a co-member of the artistic community she is from (she did start as a musician herself, after all). The pizza guy is just a kid off the street.

And, at the same time, with both starting out struggling in the arts, would strains on the relationship be surprising? Particularly where male ego is concerned, with her being more successful than him?

And the "paid him $5000 to marry her" - where's the evidence? Maybe he was needing some new instruments, and his mixing board needed replacing before he could get another gig - so she gives him 5K to upgrade. Wouldn't you do as much for your fiance if you had it?

Hell, if I was on the jury, I'd be a holdout too. But then, I'm a hopeless romantic.