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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | April 2008 
Martin to be Tried on Monday
 Charles Rusnell - Edmonton Journal
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| | Brenda Martin | | |
Edmonton - After more than two years in a Mexican prison without trial, Canadian Brenda Martin will finally get her chance Monday to prove her innocence.
Mexican court documents obtained by The Edmonton Journal show the Mexican prosecutor will argue it has a strong circumstantial case to support the charge that Martin knowingly accepted illicit funds.
Martin's defence will point to an indisputable fact: the prosecution does not have a single piece of direct evidence - either documents or witness statements - to support the charge, which carries a sentence on conviction of from five to 15 years.
"I am so afraid," Martin said in a telephone interview from a Guadalajara prison Sunday. "I am so afraid that my defence won't be enough. I am so afraid that the judge won't believe that I am innocent."
In fact, the prosecution concedes it has no direct evidence Martin knew the money she received from her employer, former Albertan Alyn Waage, was fraudulently obtained. But it claims its circumstantial case proves she must have known.
The prosecution's case hinges on its contention that Martin attempted to conceal the knowledge or origin of about $26,000 she received from Waage. Martin worked as a chef at Waage's Puerto Vallarta mansion but was fired before he was arrested. He was eventually convicted in the U.S. of running a massive Internet-based fraud scheme and is serving 10 years in a U.S. prison.
Martin said she received a year's salary in severance from Waage. Of the $26,000, Martin invested about $10,000 in what she says was Waage's investment business.
After Waage's arrest in 2001, she asked Waage to refund her investment. The refund came from an offshore account. The prosecution claims this proves she was attempting to hide its origin.
Martin is allowed to make both a written and oral statement to the court on Monday. She and her lawyer will tell the judge she had no way of knowing the refund came from an offshore account.
"How would I know that?" Martin said . "All my account showed was that the money was there." The documents show neither the police nor the prosecution ever asked Martin whether she knew the origin of the refund money.
She said will tell the judge she made no attempt to conceal any money she received from Waage. She never set up other accounts and never transferred the money out of the country. She will also stress she never attempted to flee Mexico, as others did, and she cooperated fully with police, providing two voluntary statements.
Martin was arrested on Feb. 17, 2006, nearly five years after Waage's arrest.
Witness statements appear to support Martin's contention that she had no knowledge of, or involvement, in the scheme. All the witnesses, including a Mexican maid and the pool cleaner, said she was a cook and none said she had any involvement in Waage's business. They also support her version of events including the work she did for Waage and her firing.
"If I was part of the scheme, why did I have to cook sometimes six meals a day and wash dishes and be on-call 24 hours a day if someone got hungry?" Martin said. "If I was involved, you would think they would have someone else doing that."
Through an interpreter, a former senior Mexican justice official said the prosecution has attempted to convict Martin simply through her association with Waage, and by swamping the judge with paperwork.
The prosecution's main file contains more than 25,000 pages and the prosecution's final written argument is 322 pages. But he said much of it has been copied verbatim from the evidence assembled against Waage and his co-conspirators and has no relevance to the allegations against Martin.
"There was never any evidence against Ms. Martin," said the former official, who has reviewed the court documents. "She should never have been arrested or detained in the first place. It is an embarrassment for our justice system."
But the former justice official said that, unfortunately, several lawyers, including a public defender, never provided evidence to the court of her innocence. Unlike Canada where an accused is innocent until proven guilty, accused persons in Mexico must provide proof of their innocence.
That means Martin's current lawyer must now convince the judge during the final hearing that the prosecution not only has no case against his client but that she is innocent.
The judge has said he will try issue a ruling by Friday if possible.
crusnell(at)thejournal.canwest.com |
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