The public still doesn’t know whether Prince Mark Boley married for fraudulent reasons.
The semi-professional soccer player avoided conviction on a charge of marriage fraud to evade deportation after a Rhode Island jury returned a split verdict, The Boston Globe’s Travis Andersen reported Thursday, citing court filings. These facts pretty much are the only straightforward aspect of this zany case.
Boley is a Liberian national who played in his country’s Premier League in 2006 and 2007. He reportedly represented Liberia in 2013 in a FIFA World Cup qualifying loss to Angola. He played for the semi-pro Rhode Island Reds as recently as 2016.
Boley married Amanda Hames-Whitman in 2016 in a civil ceremony in Family Court, according to the Globe, and Boley applied for permanent-resident status based on the marriage on June 8, 2017 at the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services field office in Johnston, R.I.
Their story apparently unraveled when officials interviewed Boley and Hames-Whitman separately.
“During the interview Whitman was showing the officer some texts from Boley on her cell phone when a new text came in from ‘Chriss’ reading, ‘We had the best sex ever,'” the filing says. “Whitman admitted having sex with Chriss about a month before the interview. Both Boley and Whitman were nervous and evasive and presented little documentation of a genuine marriage. The matter was referred to the USCIS fraud detection unit for further inquiry.”
Boley’s and Hames-Whitman’s tale of a loving marriage ultimately collapsed when fraud officers visited her apartment, where she claimed to live with her husband.
“His name was not on the mailbox, and Whitman acknowledged that his name was not on the lease either,” the filing says. “The only men’s clothing in the apartment was a pair of dress pants and two shirts.”
Whitman soon cooperated with officials, who declined to charge her for her role in the alleged scam.
“She confessed that the marriage with Boley was entered solely for the purpose of obtaining him a green card,” the Globe story reads. “Whitman agreed to marry Boley for that purpose because she found him to be a ‘nice guy’ who had been kind to her and her daughter. She did not think it would do any harm.”
Jurors were deadlocked on the marriage-fraud charge, but they did convict Boley him of presenting a perjured immigration document and making false statements. He’ll be sentenced in November and he faces up to 10 years in prison.
