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

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

Maria Fernanda Romero Martinez, 28, of Westwood — whom makes use of the phase title Fernanda Romero — and Kent Ross, also 28, of Park La Brea, had been initially faced with federal wedding fraudulence and making false statements during her application for the 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 keep.

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Ever since then, Romero and Ross consented to exactly exactly what prosecutors call a “package deal” by which both would plead accountable to separate your lives 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 April 25 for Romero’s sentencing. He additionally set a Feb. 4 hearing on Ross’ expected guilty plea.

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

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

Prosecutors claim the set had been surviving in split domiciles and dating other folks if they tied the knot.

” It ended up being a fraud and a sham . entirely to have a card that is green” Left told the jury just last year, arguing that the couple never ever lived together nor had any intention of accomplishing 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 professional professional professional photographer Markus Klinko, alleged in a unrelated lawsuit that the wedding of Romero and Ross ended up being bogus.

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

Ross described himself because the supervisor of a pizza restaurant and a functional musician whom played in a band called The Electrical Uh-Oh.

Romero and Ross declined remark after Friday’s hearing.

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