Laura Hernandez

Laura Hernandez (born approx. 1972) is a Puerto Rican woman who is a former television news reporter for Tele-Once. Nowadays, she is jailed in the Dominican Republic, accussed of drug trafficking. Hernandez is also a former beauty queen.

Hernandez gained much fame in Puerto Rico during the middle and late 1990s as a news reporter. At the time, she was portrayed a lot on such gossip magazines as Vea and Teve-Guia[?], publications which informed the general public about her way of living and other details of her life.

Late in 2002, she and her husband, Marcos Irizarri[?], were arrested by the Dominican police and charged with trafficking drugs to their country. Hernandez and Irizarri had been in the Caribbean country for nearly a week, touring throught different cities and places. According to police reports, their every move had been monitored by police while there. They were arrested while eating at a restaurant. The police said they had found drugs in a private boat where the couple had been travelling.

Hernandez has had chronic stomach disease since she was a child, and her condition worsened the first weeks she was in jail, requiring hospitalization at a medical center outside jail. Her arrest and subsequent trail made the headlines all over Puerto Rico, El Nuevo Dia, El Vocero and other newspapers giving it wide coverage. During that time also, she received frequent visits from family members and friends.

In June of 2003, Hernandez was sentenced to seven years in jail, and her husband to 15.

External links

• [[1] (http://vote.sparklit.com/poll.spark/681197)] (a poll, in Spanish about whether she's innocent or guilty)
• [[2] (http://www.dr1.com/news/2002/dnews091802.shtmlge)] (In English)