Ex-Girlfriend of WSOP Champ Jonathan Duhamel Paroled in Beating, Robbery Case
Bianca Rojas-Latraverse, the one-time girlfriend of 2010 WSOP Main Event winner Jonathan Duhamel, who masterminded a home-invasion robbery and beating of Duhamel in 2011, has been paroled by Canada’s National Parole Board.
Rojas-Latraverse, according to Quebec reports, did not want to be paroled. Rojas-Latraverse apparently expressed remorse for the crime, telling the court that she wanted to do her “time and sentence.” Instead, Rojas-Latraverse was forcibly paroled under Canadian prison guidelines that call for mandatory release after two-thirds of a sentence has been served, if the prisoner has exhibited good behavior. Rojas-Latraverse has been in prison for 28 months since being jailed for the crime.
The crime occurred after a romantic split between Rojas-Latraverse and Duhamel. An acquaintance of Rojas-Latraverse offered authorities evidence that led straight to her in the wake of the robbery and beating, including text messages and statements about the planned crime.
In releasing Rojas-Latraverse, Parole Board Commissioner Anne-Marie Asselin overruled Rojas-Latraverse’s plea, instead affirming that the mandatory release must take place as scheduled. “The Corrections and Conditional Release Act stipulates that you will be released under supervision on the prescribed date and remain (free) until your sentence expires,” responded Asselin, to Rojas-Latraverse’s request to serve the full sentence.
Rojas-Latraverse pled guilty last year in the case involving Duhamel, who lost an estimated $120,000 and his WSOP champion’s bracelet in the robbery. WSOP officials later gave Duhamel a replacement bracelet after the original was recovered, months after the original robbery, in badly damaged and unwearable condition. Most of the money stolen was never recovered.
All told, four people were involved in the home-invasion robbery, one of several that has targeted high-profile poker players in recent years. The two men responsible for the physical beating of Duhamel, Anthony Bourque and John Stephan Clark-Lemay, each received four-year sentences for the crime. Both have remained in custody since being arrested in connection with the home invasion.
Clark-Lemay was just sentenced last month for his role in the crime, in which he and Bourque knocked on the door of Duhamel’s home in Boucherville, a suburb of Montreal. The two claimed to be delivering a package and forced their way in when Duhamel answered their knock, then beat Duhamel and left him tied up after gaining access to his safe.
The crime took place on December 21, 2011, and three of the four people involved — Rojas-Latraverse, Bourque and Clark-Lemay — were arrested within days. The fourth person charged, Andres Valderrama, was not revealed as a participant for several months. Valderrama drove the vehicle in which the four arrived at Duhamel’s house, but did not participate in the actual beating, with his role in the affair not fully known until his arrest nine months after the home invasion, in September of 2012.
A fifth individual, Andre Perron, a cousin of Clark-Lemay’s, was also detained by authorities shortly after the robbery after being seen wearing jewelry known to be Duhamel’s, though reports differ on whether it was the eventually lost-and-damaged WSOP winner’s bracelet or a separate Rolex watch valued at $10,000 that was also taken from Duhamel’s safe.
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