The Waiting Game
Victor Martinez Bides His Time Behind Bars
Exclusive Interview by Ron Harris for Muscular Development
The last time Victor had called me, I really couldn’t talk. It was about 10:00 p.m. on New Year’s Eve and I was walking into Mohegan Sun casino to ring in the New Year with about 200,000 other happy (and drunk) revelers. Meanwhile, the reigning Arnold Classic Europe champ was locked up in New Jersey as he waited for his next hearing to determine his fate. That hearing happened on January 6, and as often happens in our justice system, all that came of it was a postponement until the next hearing on February 24 where he will be given his final hearing date. Theoretically, Victor might be in there until April or May before he hopefully is released and can start getting his life back in order. By then, he will have been incarcerated for roughly seven months. I spoke to him last night, and under the circumstances Martinez sounded remarkably calm.
MD: Victor, I saw that one encouraging thing came out of the hearing a few days ago. Your application to waive the criminal charges was approved by the judge. Does that mean they won’t count against you in the final decision whether to let you stay in the USA?
VM: Yes, and that’s major.
MD: I don’t understand why you haven’t been granted bail, though. Usually I thought people weren’t given bail mainly because they were considered a flight risk. You’re trying to stay here. It’s not like you’re going to disappear into the Midwest and live under a false name. You’re a professional athlete and a public figure.
VM: For whatever reason, it’s harder for legal aliens like me to get bail. I still have a good chance of getting that, though; my lawyer is still working on it.
MD: I also understand that you might be a citizen after all this? Would the judge just grant it to you automatically if he decides to let you stay?
VM: No, it’s not like that. I would have to apply for it again. But that would be my first priority, obviously! I also want to let the ladies know that I’m not an illegal alien, so I don’t need to get married.
MD: What, have you been getting proposals?
VM: Yeah, a few women have offered to bail me out and marry me so I can stay here. Some are women I know, others I’ve never even heard of. My girlfriend wouldn’t be too happy about that.
MD: Who was at the hearing on Friday, anyone we know?
VM: Jonathan De La Rosa was there with his dad and Juan Morel. Jon’s dad is bigger than me now! Victor Munoz was at the hearing, so was my friend Ralph, plus my sisters, my aunt, my niece, and my nephews. Lot of support and I appreciated it.
MD: I hate to ask you this, but a ton of people on the MD boards have been speculating and wondering what you weigh now. Do you even know? Do you have access to a scale?
VM: No, but I don’t need a scale. I feel about 230, and I know my body pretty well so that’s gotta be close. I came in here at about 265. I won’t lose any more weight, though. I’ve leveled off and this is where my body will stay.
MD: Has the exercise situation improved? Do you have access to any weights at all?
VM: Nope. Listen up, meatheads— don’t do anything in the state of New Jersey, ‘cus there ain’t no weights in their jails!
MD: Whoever we got the info about the hearing from said you looked rested. Have you been sleeping more than usual?
VM: Oh, definitely. I spend most of the day reading and writing to fans. I’ve gotten letters from Hawaii, England, Spain, all over.
MD: I meant to ask, if people write to you, should they include a self-addressed stamped envelope?
VM: They can include an envelope, but we have to pay for postage out of our commissary account, and that has a $125 limit. Guess who owns the commissary? The Bush family!
MD: No shit?
VM: Yeah, I gotta tell Gerard he should get some MHP protein bars in the prison commissaries— he could make a killing. Everything they sell now is candy bars and chips.
MD: What time do you have to be in your cell for the night by?
VM: That’s what I wanted to say. They won’t move me to the dorms in the immigration section. I have friends over there. This whole time I’ve been stuck in the intake section where they have us locked up at 9. Immigration doesn’t lock down until 11. The other thing is, there’s a chin-up bar and dipping bars over there I could be using. All we have in my section is a chin-up bar outside, and if the weather’s bad they won’t even let me out there.
MD: That sucks. I know jail isn’t supposed to be the Ritz-Carlton, but how is your cell?
VM: I think it’s about 8 feet by 10 feet. It’s freakin’ cold in here, though, like about 50 degrees. I have a bad cold right now. The bed is just big enough for your body. You can’t move around at all. The mattress is maybe an inch and a half thick.
MD: So, no Posturepedic mattress with memory foam?
VM: No, man.
MD: Couple other random questions— do you have to take showers with a ton of other dudes? Is your hair growing back?
VM: We do have individual shower stalls, but a lot of the showerheads don’t work. Plus the drains are always getting clogged up with I don’t know what. We have a barber in here for my head, but my body hair is all back now. I look like a damn Chia Pet.
MD: You mentioned before that it’s tougher to get bail as a legal alien. What else is different?
VM: You’re better off being an illegal alien or a U.S. citizen charged with a felony. Usually they get bail, and they get less time. But I should say that one bad thing I’ve seen them do with illegals is to keep them totally isolated for the first couple weeks they get here. Then they get scared and confused, and they give them papers to sign out and be deported. They might have a 50/50 chance of beating the case and staying here, but after all that they just want to get out one way or another.
MD: How are you dealing with not being able to train or eat right?
VM: I don’t stress out about it because there’s nothing I can do about it right now. The only thing that really bothers me is not being with my kids. I try to keep busy with a lot of reading. I’m on the third book in the Game of Thrones series now, and I just read Killing Pablo. I read a couple James Patterson books. We usually watch a couple bootleg DVDs every morning, too. Today I saw “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” and “Final Destination 5.”
MD: Well, that’s about all I have for you now before I need to ask you questions for your next MD column, so is there anything you want to say?
VM: Yes, thanks to all my fans and friends for standing by me throughout this. I appreciate all the letters and they help me fill my long days here, so please keep them coming!
You May Write to Victor at:
Victor Martinez A-3-W 252912
35 Hackensack Ave.
Kearny, NJ 07032
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Вик писал,что там качалка была и жратва "сносная",но для обычных людей...
