Brenda Martin

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Brenda Kim Martin aka Brenda Bletcher, as she was known to her childhood friends, is a Canadian citizen from Trenton, Ontario, who began living in Mexico in 1998, working in the culinary industry, allegedly without a visa^[1]. In 2006, she was arrested on charges related to a former employer, Alyn Waage. She remained awaiting disposition of her case for two years. The trial or judicial decision of her trial was pushed forward due to intervention of the Canadian Government and people. ^[2]. Through-out the proceedings, she has maintained that she is innocent of the charges and was not implicated by the ring leader Alyn Waage, who is incarcerated for the fraud in the USA.

The guilty verdict is based on evidence suggesting she knowingly accepted illicit funds from her former boss, Canadian Alyn Waage, with whom she had a close relationship. She has been sentenced to five years in jail without parole and received a fine. After being transferred to Canada, she was granted full parole. Martin was convicted of driving under the influence about twenty years ago. She was also charged and convicted in the early seventies, when she attempted to pass a fraudulent cheque using stolen ID. Unfortunately she attempted to use the stolen ID on the very girl it had been stolen from, who was a clerk in a clothing store. It was the first time Brenda would get press coverage for her criminal activity in Canada. This was in the era before pictures were placed on Ontario licenses and also before Canada's Young Offenders Act was passed in 1982. ^[3]

Contents 1 Arrest 2 Trial and publicity 2.1 Conviction 2.2 Prison transfer 3 Transfer from Mexico 4 Public response 5 References

[edit] Arrest

While Martin was employed by Waage, he was running an internet fraud pyramid scheme, the "Tri-West Investment Club", which defrauded 15,000 victims of more than US$60 million.^[4] Following a joint investigation by US, Canadian, and Costa Rican police, he was arrested and charged with fraud in 2006.^[5] After fleeing Mexico while on bail, he was re-arrested in Costa Rica and is now serving a 10-year sentence in the United States.^[4] Co-conspirators Keith Nordick and Michael Webb were also convicted of related offences.^[4]

The PGR (Mexican Federal District Attorney office) believed Martin had participated in the fraud and arrested her in 2006.^{[citation needed]} Martin claims she never realized there was something wrong going on. Waage has given sworn evidence that she was unaware of his illegal activities and has stated that the Mexican authorities are holding her to maintain leverage over him. Although in his sworn affidavit he did admit that Martin had worked for him for only five months and never stated he had given her a year's severance for being fired. He explained the money sent as a return of her fiances investment in his scheme, due to the fact, as a Mexican resident he could not invest.^{[citation needed]}

Because charges against Brenda Martin are Federal and considered serious felonies in Mexico, and because she is a foreigner, Mexican law prevents her released on bail. As a result, she remained in custody while awaiting trial.

[edit] Trial and publicity

Trials in Mexico are conducted in a written rather than oral format, which can make them proceed slower than trials in Martin's native Canada. In addition, all the paper work needed to be translated by a certified translator in order for Brenda to be conscious of her process. Largely because her long wait in prison, Martin has experienced emotional stress and has been the focus of a great deal of media attention in Canada.^{[citation needed]}

Martin's lawyers attempted a constitutional challenge against the prosecution, claiming her interpreter had not been capable of explaining the charges she faced. According to Mexican officials, this had the effect of delaying a verdict.^[4]

On April 14, 2008 Martin faced her final hearing before Judge Nuñez from the 7th federal district in the Puente Grande prison complex and court house. It was a summary hearing in which the entire 21,000-page Waage file was presented. Mexican law states that a judge must deliver a sentence within 10 working days of the last hearing if the file is 500 pages or less. For files 501 pages or more, each 100 pages adds one working day up to a total of 30 days. Brenda Martin asked the judge to deliver her sentence in four days (by April 18). Judge Nuñez answered that he was not obligated by law to meet her demands, but would do his best to deliver his verdict as soon as possible.

[edit] Conviction

On April 22, Judge Nuñez announced that Martin was guilty. Martin was sentenced to a minimum of five years with no chance of parole, and was fined 35,850 pesos (approximately CAD3,441). In his decision, Judge Nuñez ruled that Martin did know that the money she received from Allan Waage came from the proceeds of an internet scam and were therefore illicit funds.

[edit] Prison transfer

Martin has applied for a prisoner transfer in order to serve out her time in Canada.^[6][7][8][9] The Mexican government has stated that all of the necessary work has been done at their end, and that it is now up to the Canadian government to accept her.

The court ruling first needs to be translated into English. Based on this, Corrections Canada needs to determine an equivalent sentence. There is a strong chance that the time Martin has already served will be applied to her Canadian sentence, meaning that she would not serve any jail time in Canada. Prisoner transfers usually take six to eight months.

[edit] Transfer from Mexico

On May 1, 2008, Martin was transferred in a government-chartered jet from the Mexican prison she was held in, back to Canada. The flight cost Canadian taxpayers $82,727. Additonally, in order to expedite the transfer, the Canadian government paid the C$3,441 fine (35,850 pesos) imposed by the Mexican Judge that presided over her case. MP Jason Kenney was quoted saying the fine was paid through a special fund the Foreign Affairs Department has for distressed Canadians abroad. Though initially she was remanded into custody at the Grand Valley Institution in Kitchener, Ontario, she was immediately eligible for parole as she had already served more than one third of her sentence in Mexico. On May 9, 2008, Ms. Martin was released on parole from the Canadian prison into her mother's custody.

[edit] Public response

Canadian MP Bill Casey has called for a boycott of Mexico in response to her treatment.^[10]

Despite the predominantly partial media coverage of Brenda Martin's plight and sympathy from several high-ranking politicians, Brenda's story received little attention from the general Canadian public. Rallies calling for her return had weak turn-outs. Judging by the volume and content of the online responses to media articles covering her case, Ms. Martin, for many ordinary Canadians, examplifies a "Canadian of convenience". Ms. Martin today states she will appeal her conviction to the World Court, which is disingenuous as the world court or the International Court of Justice only adjudicates on disputes referred to it by state governments and has not authority to adjudicate on criminal convictions.

[edit] References