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Thursday, October 30, 2008

Response to a concerned citizen from US Senator from Oregon

The following is an email response from the office of Senator Ron Wyden to Marri-Beth Serritella, a citizen concerned about the lack of assistance from the US government for Rebecca Roth. We had received a very similar response from US Senator Gordon Smith of Oregon earlier in this process.

Marri-Beth was made aware of Rebecca's situation through Margie Boule's column in The Oregonian and she forwarded Senator Wyden's response to me.

Following Senator Wyden's response are my comments to Marri-Beth.


Dear Ms. Serritella:

Thank you for contacting me to share your concerns about the case of Rebecca Roth. I appreciate hearing from you on this important issue.

As you may know, Rebecca Roth is a U.S. citizen and former resident of Lake Oswego, Oregon.
Ms. Roth moved to Mexico, and in 2001, went to work as an assistant to Alyn Waage. Later that year, Mr. Waage was arrested and convicted for running a Ponzi scheme; he is currently serving time in a U.S. prison. In 2006, Mexican authorities arrested and charged Ms. Roth with organized crime and money laundering for allegedly participating in Mr. Waage’s scheme. She has been sentenced to nine years in jail and has filed an appeal with the Mexican courts.

I want you to know that I understand your concerns about Ms. Roth’s unfortunate situation. Because of her appeal, Ms. Roth is ineligible for transfer to the United States under America’s prisoner transfer agreements with Mexico. Ultimately, whether to appeal her sentence in Mexico or to seek transfer to the United States is a decision that only Ms. Roth can make. Please rest assured that my staff and I will continue to follow Ms. Roth’s case closely. As we do so, I will keep you views in mind.

Again, thank you for keeping me apprised of your views on this important issue.

Please contact me if I may be of further assistance.

Sincerely,
Ron Wyden, United States Senator

To write to me, go to http://wyden.senate.gov/

Important Note:
Senator Wyden's comments state that Rebecca went to work as an assistant to Alyn Waage. This is NOT correct. She was, as stated in earlier posts on this blog, a part time employeee, hired to stand in line to pay Waage's household bills for his properties and arrange transportation for Waage and his family and business partners.


My comments to Marri-Beth Serritella:

This response from Senator Wyden is a standard piece of verbiage that has been cooked up and is accurate only to the extent that they will do nothing. It is nearly verbatim to the rhetoric from Senator Smith's office, simply taking the stance that there is nothing that can be done about a "Prisoner Transfer" while Rebecca's appeal is ongoing. We know all about the Prisoner Transfer and how that works, as we have had direct contact with the office of the Federal Public Defender that handles prisoner transfers. However, what this response does not address is the lack of assistance that Rebecca Roth was provided by the US Consulate and US State Department from the very beginning.

Had Rebecca been the daughter, mother or sister of any of these elected officials or someone of political or financial importance, you can be assured that the efforts and outcome would have been considerably different. That is the real issue and it has been swept to the back of the room and under a carpet in the corner.

So, it is apparent that we will get no assistance from our elected representatives as their "hands are tied" and as Rebecca was told, this is no longer about her case, but about the sentence. They don't seem to care and the US cannot readjudicate the case. The reality is that they can not do anything at this point other than to send the issue to someone that could, like the Secretary of State. All responses so far have been similar to what you have received from Senator Wyden, with elected officials choosing to throw their hands in the air and not to push the issue to a higher level of awareness.

Rebecca has written a lengthy letter to Secretary of State, Condoleeza Rice. The Superintendant at the prison has assured her that she would get the letter to Sec. Rice. This was almost done as a challenge by that Superintendant to see if she would be proven right. She seems to be confident that she can make something happen for Rebecca after hearing from Rebecca that a Consulate official had no access to and could not communicate with the head of the State Department. She was quite shocked and has taken the stance of "By God, I'll get a letter to her." It will be sent to Ms. Rice with the Superintendant of the Prison's return address on the envelope. Rebecca's counselor in the prison has read the letter and indicated that she thought it was well written and was not negative. If these prison officials are correct, the letter should be received and received well. We will see.

Obviously, this assistance from the prison superintendant indicates that Rebecca is well respected and worthy of that assistance. This is one of the examples of the fact that anyone who has taken the time to look at and understand the circumstances of Rebecca's case can see right through the illusion of guilt that the Mexican judicial system has created.

Your concern and your efforts are very much appreciated, Marri-Beth. Please continue to get the word out. Send anyone that you communicate with to the blog about Rebecca at http://rebeccarothprisonerinparadise.blogspot.com/ because it is awareness that will be our ally at this point.

Letters of encouragement can be sent to Rebecca at vallartagal@hotmail.com which is the email account Rebecca has had for many years. Barbara is monitoring that account and will print letters and get them to Rebecca.

Thanks again for you support.

David Dickinson
Seattle, WA


NOTE:
I have recently sent an electronic note that I hope will reach Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice. If you are reading this and would like to make a difference, send your own note through this Contact the State Department Link asking Secretary Rice to now get involved. In the area called Additional Information... Search by Topic: select Secretary of State.

Maybe with enough people reaching out, we can make a difference.


Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Margie Boule writes of Rebecca Roth's incarceration in Mexico

An ordinary Oregonian in paradise falls into the deep hole they call the Mexican justice system

Sunday, October 12, 2008
As published in The Oregonian LINK

You're an American citizen, one of many Americans living in Mexico. You moved from Lake Oswego to Puerto Vallarta with your teenage sons in 1999 because your bad asthma goes away in Mexico.


Then one day in 2006, Mexican authorities arrive and arrest you. They put you in the back of a pickup and drive you overnight to a maximum-security prison, where you're dumped in a crowded room with murderers and the mentally ill. There's no translator; no one tells you why you've been taken.

You assume the U.S. government, the most powerful government in the world, will come to your aid. Help ensure your rights are protected under international treaties and Mexican law.

You're wrong.

Ask Rebecca Roth. The former Oregonian has been sitting in a Guadalajara prison for 21/2 years for a crime nobody can prove she committed and that the real criminal has sworn she had nothing to do with. Still, she was convicted after a ludicrous hearing and sentenced to nine years; the prosecutor is appealing, asking she be kept in prison for 23 years, the maximum sentence.

Her crime? For three months in 2001, Rebecca worked for a wealthy Canadian in Puerto Vallarta, making his travel arrangements and standing in line to pay utility bills for the properties he owned. (In Mexico you can't pay by check; someone must pay in cash in person.)
It turned out the Canadian man, Alyn Waage, was one of the largest Internet scam artists in history. He, associates and family members stole more than $60 million from investors all over the world. The U.S. convicted him in 2005, and he is in prison in North Carolina.


A year after Waage's U.S. conviction, Rebecca and Alyn Waage's cook, a Canadian woman, were arrested by the Mexican police, charged with organized crime and money laundering.

Each had received money when Alyn was first arrested, in Mexico, to continue their work for him. Rebecca consulted with Alyn's attorney -- who had also been attorney for Mexican president Vicente Fox -- and she remembers being told it was not illegal to work for someone in prison. Funds were transferred to her bank account, and she paid his utility bills. She has receipts and bank records to prove she received no more than utility costs and her salary.

She assumed those receipts, which prove her innocence, would lead to a not-guilty verdict in April, when her case finally came before a judge.

She didn't stand a chance.

Canada had certainly lived up to its national anthem, standing on guard for its own citizen. The Canadian cook was visited in prison by Canada's prime minister; politicians and diplomats appealed to Mexico; the Canadian press splashed her case coast to coast.

Rebecca's sister, Barbara Roth, received no help from the U.S. State Department, the consulate in Guadalajara or elected representatives from Oregon. No one made appeals to Mexico. No politicians visited Rebecca in prison.

There's no question her international rights were being ignored; her case should have been thrown out simply because of the violations. She was placed in prison with convicted criminals. Mexican guarantees of due process were violated. Interpreters were not provided. She was not told she was a suspect when she was interrogated. She was denied legal counsel. She was not given the time or the right to prepare an adequate defense.

In the end, Rebecca had to make her own charts and write her own defense, sitting in prison. Months after she was convicted, she was told the judge had dated his written verdict before the hearing was even held.

Since I last wrote about Rebecca several months ago, the Canadian cook has been returned to Canada and released. She's writing a book about her experience.

Rebecca still sits in the Mexican prison, waiting for her appeal to be heard.

She may not have the power of her government, or the sympathy of her entire country, but she's not alone.

Her ex-husband, David Dickinson, has now joined her fight.

"Quite honestly, when this started, I figured it would end with a false-arrest-type thing," David says from his home in Seattle.

He and the rest of the family were told not to make a fuss because it might anger Mexican authorities.

David is utterly certain Rebecca committed no crime. In the years they were married and in the years of friendship since their divorce, he's admired her strong ethics. "It would be completely out of character for her to go to Mexico and become a criminal," he says.

Rebecca owned a boutique and ceramics business in Puerto Vallarta. She took Alyn Waage's part-time job to tide her over in the tourist off-season, David says.

David was outraged when Rebecca was convicted. "I started making phone calls to senators, sending e-mails," contacting the national press. "It had no effect. I was absolutely amazed."
After I wrote about Rebecca's situation in The Oregonian, I received several e-mails from U.S. citizens who've worked abroad. They are not willing to have their names published but said the U.S. is known not to protect its citizens in situations like this. "If anyone had a problem, we headed straight for the Canadian consulate," one wrote.


Recently, David's hopes were raised when NBC appeared to be interested in doing an hourlong program about Alyn Waage's crimes and the injustice Rebecca has faced. Alyn has made sworn statements to U.S. judges insisting Rebecca knew nothing about his financial business.
But the U.S. Bureau of Prisons refused the network's request to interview Alyn. The network told David there will be no story without the interview.


It seems as if every time Rebecca is given a faint hope of assistance, her hope is broken. David hired a Mexican attorney who met with the Mexican appeals court judge, to explain why her conviction should be overturned. Rebecca's sister, Barbara, also met with the judge, to make a personal appeal.

"We were told it was a good judge, an impartial judge," David says. The Mexican attorney and Barbara told David the meetings had gone well.

Then, just a few days ago, Rebecca's case was transferred to another state, another appeals judge. "This is shocking news and it has us all spinning," David says. "It's like starting all over again."


Still, they won't give up.

Rebecca could accept the guilty verdict, be transferred to the U.S. and finish her sentence in U.S. prisons. But the crimes Mexico convicted her of carry much higher sentences in the U.S. She could be released, or she could be imprisoned far longer than Alyn Waage, the man who stole $60 million.

Rebecca did not participate in or benefit from the scam, say all involved. She has little money. She does not want to live the rest of her life as a convicted felon. Before this, she'd never even been arrested.

So she persists in her appeal in Mexico, hoping others will join her fight. To that end, David Dickinson has started an informative blog (http://rebeccarothprisonerinparadise.blogspot.com/).

Among other fascinating nuggets, he quotes a letter he received from Waage that claimed Rebecca is in prison because she's being held hostage by a Mexican prosecutor who was promised a half-million-dollar bribe by Waage; Waage skipped bail and never paid up.

There's also a quote from a Canadian government official, saying Rebecca may have been arrested so former President Fox could brag he'd imprisoned a "leader" in the Waage scandal.
Rebecca's family believes if she'd had money to pay a bribe early on, she'd never have been imprisoned. But she had no money. She was just an ordinary Oregonian in paradise, until she fell into the deep hole they call the Mexican justice system.


"She is very despondent," David Dickinson says, "feeling very ignored and unrepresented by her country. She was in tears when we last spoke."

But she's not suffering in silence anymore.

In an open letter Rebecca wrote recently, she says she's learned "how dangerous Mexico is for Americans desiring to retire here, how powerless foreigners are here. . . . It is not possible to get a fair trial.

"I don't belong in jail. I never did. My family is suffering, as well. I decided to write this because of a conversation with my youngest son. He told me, 'We have no hope. The system is corrupt and the U.S. doesn't care. There's no one to turn to.'

"I hope he's wrong."


Margie Boule: 503-221-8450; marboule@aol.com

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Setback or Opportunity?

Last week, we received some news that left us a little more uncertain as to the fate of Rebecca's case.

That news arrived in the form of a transfer of the case from the appeal court and judge that we had worked so hard in providing a comprehensive understanding of the case to a court in a completely different state. The case has been moved from the State of Jalisco to the State of Guanajuato.

This was done, we have been told, due to a serious backlog in the court in Jalisco. The appeal judge we had worked with is now out of the picture. She had stated to Rebecca's sister that she was working many additional hours and was completely overwhelmed. That gave us some insight as to why she said it would be longer getting a verdict to the appeal than we had initially been told and we were just wrapping our minds around that when this new development was passed on to us.

It has been told to me, by a reputable source in Mexico, that "Any documentation that was entered into the file would be transferred to the new court, and any progress on the case or anything done so far by the Jalisco court would be transferred as well. It will be very important for Rebecca's lawyers to request a meeting with the new Judge and secretaries again like they did in Jalisco."

That source is following up and trying to gain more information and we hope to have some better insight soon.

My personal thoughts are that it appears that it is important that some steps be repeated at this point. Rebecca's PD needs to make contact with the appeal judge and secretary in Guanajuato ASAP. It would probably be a good idea for Barbara and Lucy, the personal family friend acting as interpreter, to to an encore performance, as well. Just when we thought there was some daylight...

On a positive note and as a good reason to proceed with retracing efforts, let's assume for the moment that:

1. The court in Guanajuato is open enough that that they will get started reviewing these newly assigned cases right away

2. Rebecca's case, somehow, is on the top of the stack

3. The reviewing appeal judge and secretary of the court, have no awareness or knowledge of Rebecca or Tri West and will view this case with open minds and see it for all of its deficiencies and lack of proof of Rebecca Roth's guilt.

This may be an opportunity for the case to be reviewed and a positive outcome arrived at for Rebecca in a shorter time than was anticipated in Jalisco. It is important that the PD "strikes while the iron is hot" and that Barbara follow up with the personal side of the story to the new judge as soon as possible. That is to take the proactive and positive stance on behalf of Rebecca as opposed to bemoaning another set back and waiting to see what happens.

This was shocking news and it has us all spinning due to the uncertainty that lies ahead, but I tend to want to look at the positive side and I know that retracing positive actions of the past will only be positive going forward. There is no negative to being positive and proactive.

Let's face it, however this turns out, this is the home stretch and the finish line maybe closer than we could imagine. Another rally to the cause may make all the difference. If there is not a positive outcome, we do have the prisoner transfer to fall back on and according to Maureen Franco, that avenue will not be as devastating as was once believed.

On Sunday, Margie Bouhle of The Oregonian in Portland, OR is going to do another installment in her ongoing coverage of this story of a former Portland resident that has been treated unjustly in a country that has diplomatic ties with the US and that the US has left unaided and ignored, despite efforts to call them to action.

When I began my involvement, one of the first things I did was to send this story to ALL of the top 50 circulation newspapers in the US that I found in a Google search for highest circulation. I received exactly ZERO replies or requests for more info. Absolutely NO interest from anyone.

Margie Bouhle at The Oregonian is the only news outlet that has had continuing coverage and we thank her for her interest and tenacity in following this story. Keep an eye on the Internet at Margie Bouhle's Column for that updated article after Sunday.

Our many thanks go out to Margie and The Oregonian.

Please take a moment to contact your own Senators and Representatives in Congress and make them aware of this woman's plight. Find your rep and contact them through THIS LINK.