[Anonymous]

Daily Breeze article

Wednesday, April 13, 2005

RB man confesses to sham marriage to a real Amazon

Tunisian tried to remain in the U.S. by paying a respected member of the L.A. female football team to marry him and deceive immigration officials.

By Larry Altman

Daily Breeze

A Redondo Beach man from Tunisia pleaded guilty Monday to charges he paid his 6-foot, 3-inch, 300-pound, football-playing bride $200 a month to marry him — plus $400 on their wedding day — so he could stay in the United States.

An affidavit filed in federal court revealed the couple married in Las Vegas, never consummated the marriage and never lived together. And, the affidavit said, his defensive line-playing wife wasn’t even interested in men.

"This has to be one of the most mind-bending cases of marriage fraud we’ve ever seen," said Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Mohamed Salah Ben Ahmed Ben Meftah Hrizi, 38, a one-time Tunisian high school teacher, initially was arrested in September 2002 when he overstayed his visa. A short time later, he married Unique Livera Mc- Kinney, a player for the Los Angeles Amazons female football team based in Pasadena.

Investigators say it was a sham designed to exploit the U.S. immigration system.

"If you commit marriage fraud and get caught, there is not going to be a honeymoon," said Loraine Brown, special agent-in-charge of ICE investigations in Los Angeles.

According to the 32-page complaint filed against Hrizi, Hrizi entered the United States in July 2000 on a tourist visa that allowed him to stay until December 2001.

But in December 2002, after Hrizi had been charged with violating his immigration status and faced deportation, the couple filed documents saying they had married in Las Vegas a month earlier and asking that he receive permanent alien status.

They couple claimed to live in an apartment in the 13600 block of Cordary Avenue in Hawthorne, the affidavit said.

At his deportation hearing on Oct. 5, 2004, Hrizi told a judge he lived with his wife in the 2100 block of Manhattan Beach Boulevard in Redondo Beach. His case was continued to April 19.

ICE investigators began looking into his marriage and found that no one at the Redondo Beach apartment building had ever seen his wife, an imposing woman who towered over the 5-foot-7-inch, 165-pound Hrizi in their wedding photo.

McKinney, a popular player on the Los Angeles team of the Women’s Professional Football League, was a considerable presence in the league until she dropped out. The Amazons play at Bassett High School in La Puente.

"Everybody saw her as the giant of the whole league and the most talented football player they’ve ever seen," said Damian Jurado, the team’s defensive coordinator. "She is just amazing. She had the strength, speed, size. Everybody who played against her was afraid of her.

"She would have been a role model for all of America."

Attempts to contact McKinney were unsuccessful. Court documents said she lives with a girlfriend in Compton.

According to the court documents, McKinney told investigators that she met Hrizi in 2002 at the One Stop Dairy in Compton. Hrizi worked the cash register, and McKinney was a frequent customer.

In early November 2002, Hrizi asked "Do you want to get married?" McKinney responded, "No, I like girls," according to the report.

Hrizi responded "Just for a couple of years," and offered to pay her on the day of the wedding and $200 a month until he received citizenship, the document said. They married in a Las Vegas chapel, but according to the documents, McKinney said they never engaged in sex and didn’t live together.

Hrizi, she told authorities, asked her for some of her clothes to keep at his apartment in case immigration authorities ever visited.

McKinney collected her $200 a month until September.

Hrizi said otherwise when he was interviewed. They engaged in sex on their wedding night and once or twice a week thereafter as they lived together, he said.

But investigators say the couple never opened any joint bank accounts or credit cards, owned property together or owned or operated any vehicles together.

"The marriage was never bona fide," Kice said.

In his plea before U.S. District Court Judge Ronald Lew, Hrizi acknowledged his fraud and agreed to be deported. Hrizi is scheduled to be sentenced June 20 and deported once he completes his sentence.

McKinney cooperated with investigators, but also could face charges, Kice said.

[Axel3.14]

He got arrested because he couldn’t change a lesbian to the other side? 😯

[Vic]

Definitely worth many years in the slammer! 🙄 LOL 😆

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