U-visa might take a U-turn

By Jazmine Ulloa/julloa@express-news.net
Published 10:07 p.m., Saturday, April 16, 2011

A police report that Patricia Martinez keeps folded in a large Ziploc Ziplock bag tells some of the story she wants to forget.

A man, it states, walked into the small travel agency in Los Angeles where she worked, chatted her up, then grabbed her arm and thrust her against a wall, fondling her breasts and trying to disrobe her.

More than eight years later, in the living room of her San Antonio home, Martinez, now 27, could still recall his face, disheveled hair and ragged clothing. He was larger than her and stronger, she said. The struggle seemed to last hours. Then he fled and she sank to the floor and wept, more from her feelings of impotence than anything else.

Martinez, a petite woman with short, brown hair from Monterrey, Mexico, was living in the United States illegally. when the assault occurred on Dec. 28, 2002.To call police seemed “well, illogical,â€