7thriv

If you are a man and you are convicted of drug dealing and kidnapping, that's pretty much it. But, if you are a woman, you can always try to wiggle out by falling back on your assets - that is if you are a pretty French woman with a soulful look in her eyes.

The woman, Florence Cassez, was convicted of kidnapping and other crimes and was eventually sentenced to 60 years in jail. Case closed, it would seem.

But through it all, Ms. Cassez, 34, has maintained her innocence. Her boyfriend, Israel Vallarta, who confessed, said she knew nothing. And the television images of police officers storming the ranch? The raid turned out to have been staged the day after the couple was arrested and the hostages released.

The case has climbed back into the headlines here because President Nicolas Sarkozy of France wants her home — and all but said so in a state visit to Mexico last month. In France, television news shows and jailhouse interviews have been spinning a tale of a love-affair-turned-nightmare in the murky workings of Mexican justice.

Very touching, but her problem is a propensity for bad boys that got out of hand.

She has stuck to the main details of her story. She arrived in Mexico in
2003 to live and work with her brother, who was then here with his Mexican wife.
Through him, she met Mr. Vallarta the following year. The pair began a difficult
relationship that alienated her friends, who sensed that he was trouble. She
spent the summer of 2005 in France but Mr. Vallarta called her and she returned
to Mexico to live at the ranch. She found a job in a hotel and looked for an
apartment closer to her job.

Although she said in her police declaration that the couple had broken up,
she described eating meals with Mr. Vallarta and socializing with his family in
the days before the arrests. During that time, she said, he had left her alone
at the ranch while he took a trip.

Watch yourself on Spring Break, girls! This could happen to you! I love how she now says she "sensed he was trouble." I think we all know that's not how it worked at the time. She loved to good life and the danger of hanging out with a Bad Azz drug dealer.

The kidnappees report that, while imprisoned at the ranch, they were berated by a woman speaking with a French accent. Sounds good to me.