Brenda Martin says she's become addicted to anti-anxiety medication during her time inside a Mexican prison, but staff psychiatrists are dismissing her claim.
During an interview with CTV's Lisa LaFlamme Tuesday at the prison, Martin gave a list of the various medications she says she takes on a regular basis.
"I'm addicted to anti-depressants, sleeping pills, anti-stress pills, pain-killers by injection, anti-anxiety injections," she said.
But a prison psychologist countered that Martin has not had the hellish prison experience she claims, noting that she once took part in a prison beauty pageant.
Pictures of the event were leaked to the media; Martin described it as a smear campaign.
"How dirty pool is that? To make me look like, wow, I was the queen," she said. "I mean, I'm supposed to be guilty now because I went into a pageant?"
The interview came one day after a judge told her that he could take up to 30 days to issue a ruling on her case. Martin, a Canadian, has been imprisoned two years.
Martin had hoped for a decision by the end of the week but was told by a judge on Monday not to count on it. Frustrated, she began crying in the courtroom.
"Unfortunately it was a big shock to her. That news wasn't the best for her but I'm pretty confident at some point the judge is going to rule sooner than the 30 business days," Martin's lawyer Guillermo Cruz Rico told CTV's Canada AM on Tuesday.
He said he is worried about Martin's health: "I'm a little bit afraid about Brenda's condition because her mental and physical shape is not the best."
Martin, of Trenton, Ont., has been in jail on charges she took part in a fraud and money laundering scheme carried out by her former boss.
Martin, who was working as a chef, maintains she is innocent and had no knowledge of the scheme.
Cruz said the judge must review the entire case, including submissions from the prosecution and the defence, which was submitted just a few days ago, which will take some time.
However, he said he is confident the judge will rule in Martin's favour and she will be released.
After the ruling on Monday, Martin was visited by a Canadian consular official who asked her to sign a form allowing for a prison transfer to Canada if she were found guilty. She declined to sign it, believing it would be an admission of guilt, LaFlamme reported on Monday.
Cruz said Martin is waiting before she signs any such document.
"I think Brenda wants to wait until the decision is made because she believes, and actually I believe as well, that she is not guilty and if she is not guilty for sure she doesn't have to sign those papers," he said.
Cruz said the judge must review the entire case, including submissions from the prosecution and the defence, which was submitted just a few days ago, which will take some time.
Martin has been held in custody since February 2006. She is accused of knowingly accepting illicit funds from an Internet fraud scheme operated by Alyn Waage. Martin had been Waage's chef until she was fired.
Waage, in prison in the U.S., has issued an affidavit in support of Martin, who has long professed her innocence.
If found guilty, Martin faces a prison sentence of at least five years.
LaFlamme said there was "no direct evidence proving that Brenda Martin knowingly accepted illicit funds."
After she was fired by Waage, Martin was given $26,000, said CTV's Lisa LaFlamme. She invested $9,600 of that money back in Waage's company and he refunded $8,600 to her after her arrest. The money was refunded through a bank account in Belize, said LaFlamme.
"The prosecution is trying to say that because this money that she was given from Alyn Waage came from an offshore account she must have known that there was something illegal about it and that she tried to conceal it," said LaFlamme.
Martin claims she never knew or asked where the money came from.
With a report by CTV's Lisa LaFlamme in Guadalajara
