Viewing Single Post From: Brenda Martin released today?

Viewing Single Post From: Brenda Martin released today?
SpookyTheCat	May 2 2008, 01:35 PM
~Shortstop had me at Hi..~ Posts: 10,713 Group: Admin Member #245 Joined: May 2, 2004	OTTAWA - The National Parole Board says Brenda Martin was eligible for parole as soon as she returned to Canada - and a prominent defence lawyer says she could be out Friday. Parole board spokeswoman Nadine Archambault-Chapleau says Martin, 51, is eligible for an accelerated parole review because she's a first-time federal offender serving a sentence for a non-violent crime. Martin served more than two years in a women's prison near Guadalajara, Mexico before a judge sentenced her last week to five years in prison and fined her about $3,500 for her alleged role in an Internet fraud scheme run by her ex-boss. She made an unexpected return to Canada on Thursday evening as a waiting media throng jockeyed for a glimpse of her stepping off a government Challenger jet and into a waiting black van. Archambault-Chapleau says Martin's time already served factors in to her parole eligibility. "Under the Offender Transfer Act, turns out that she is eligible right away - as of May 1, 2008, actually," Archambault-Chapleau said. Lawyer Edward Greenspan said that Martin could be released from custody as early as today. Greenspan, whose clients include Conrad Black, says a lawyer in his office is working on the case, and he would only get involved himself if it gets bogged down in bureaucratic red tape. Martin is being held at the Grand Valley Institution for Women in Kitchener, Ont. Officials from the Correctional Service of Canada are evaluating her physical and mental condition before deciding which security level to assign her. Martin's new quarters differ markedly from the Puente Grande women's prison outside of Guadalajara, where she shared a cell with a handful of other inmates. In contrast, inmates at the Grand Valley facility live eight or 10 to a house and do their own cooking and order their own groceries. Longtime friend and advocate Debra Tieleman says Martin was effusive upon setting foot on Canadian soil. "The first thing she said was 'Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you Canadians, thank you everyone.' She said, 'I love you all,"' Tieleman said. "At first, I didn't even know who it was."


Brenda Martin released today? · Chatter Box