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US Immigration - Fear over Alabama immigration law prompted woman to arrange fake marriage, feds say

An Alabama man today goes on trial on marriage fraud charges, and the state’s controversial immigration law may play an indirect role.
Prosecutors want to introduce evidence that defendant Andreas Andresean Jr.’s wife, Katerina Petrasova, arranged a sham marriage between her boyfriend and another woman. Petrasova, according to a court filing by prosecutors, was concerned that her boyfriend would be deported because of the tough immigration law passed the state Legislature last year.
Before testimony in the case against Andresean begins, U.S. District Judge Ginny Granade will have to decide whether to allow the evidence regarding Petrasova’s attempt to arrange a fraudulent marriage between fellow Czech Republic native Dan Cejka and an American woman named Sharon Hope Farrow.
Petrasova already has pleaded guilty to marriage fraud and conspiracy charges, admitting that she arranged to marry Andresean so that she could stay in the United States after the expiration of her visitor’s visa.
Prosecutors argue that details of Petrasova’s role in setting up the second marriage should be admitted because it is inextricably intertwined in the current allegations. Those facts are “necessary to complete the story of the crime; that is, Petrasova entered into a fraudulent marriage with Andresean to ultimately obtain her citizenship,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam Overstreet wrote.
Andresean’s attorney, James Scroggins, argues prosecutors should not be allowed to tell jurors about the second marriage because his client had nothing to do with it. He noted that there is no allegation that that Andresean even knew about the conversations between Petrasova and Farrow.
“The co-defendant’s attempt to arrange a separate and distinct marriage, two years later, between two other individuals, is not part of the crime as charged in the indictment,” he wrote.
Added Scroggins: “Neither is this evidence necessary to tell the complete story of the crime.”
According to the prosecution filing, Petrasova asked Farrow if she had ever heard of people paying for marriages. Overstreet wrote that she described Cejka, her boyfriend of seven years, as the love of her life and told Farrow that it was impractical for him to move to another state to avoid Alabama’s immigration law because she and he recently had purchased a house together in Gulf Shores and were planning to start a family.
Petrasova, according to the court filing, offered to pay Farrow $4,000 to marry Cejka and remain so for at least two years – the amount of time a marriage to an American must last because a foreigner can obtain permanent residency,
Farrow initially turned down the offer but agreed to the arrangement after Petrasova asked again in December, Overstreet wrote. He stated that Farrow followed through with an informal ceremony at the Pensacola courthouse in January.
Within a week, though, Farrow changed her mind and started taking steps to get the married annulled.

Read the full story here. 

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