Thread: Phony IDs, licenses bring seven-year sentences

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Phony IDs, licenses bring seven-year sentences

By Tracy M. Neal Staff Writer // tracyn@nwanews.com

Posted on Tuesday, August 15, 2006

BENTONVILLE — A mother and daughter received seven-year prison sentences for their involvement in a scheme that provided illegal aliens with identification cards and driver’s licenses.

Lorainne Nicklas Janway, 28, of Rogers and her mother, Connie Beeks, 45, of DeRidder, La., pleaded guilty Monday morning to forgery in the first degree, a class B felony, which is punishable with a prison sentence ranging from five to 20 years.

Janway was employed as a clerk for the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration. She worked in the state Revenue Office in Bentonville.

One of her duties was to issue identification cards and driver’s licenses.

The mother and daughter admitted to being involved in a scheme to sell ID cards and driver’s licenses. Beeks admitted to driving several illegal aliens to the Revenue Office, and her daughter admitted to providing illegal aliens with fraudulent ID cards and licenses.

Deputy Prosecutor Drew Ledbetter said Janway, through her employment, printed forged ID cards and licenses for money, and Beeks transported some people to the office to obtain the fraudulent documents.

According to court documents, other employees at the Revenue Office told investigators Janway had been observed taking photographs of Hispanic applicants and then superimposing those photographs onto computerized Arkansas ID cards or Arkansas driver’s license records of other people who were not in the office. Janway would then issue the fraudulently created ID cards or licenses to the Hispanic applicants.

Janway and Beeks pleaded guilty under an agreement that Public Defender Victoria Hargis and Dara Young reached with Ledbetter.

District Judge Jeff Conner, who was sitting in for Circuit Judge Tom Keith, accepted the plea agreements and the guilty pleas.

Janway and Beeks were sentenced to seven years each in the Arkansas Department of Correction. After their release from prison, they must abide by a suspended sentence agreement for seven years.

Beeks was ordered to pay $ 150 in court costs, a $ 1, 000 fine, a $ 350 public-defender fee and a $ 250 DNA-fund fee. Janway must pay $ 150 in court costs, a $ 1, 000 fine and a $ 250 DNA-fund fee.

Janway was arrested Dec. 1, 2004, and her mother was arrested several months later.

Ledbetter attributed the successful prosecution of the case to Doug Freeman, a federal air marshal assigned to the FBI’s Terrorism Task Force in Little Rock.

Freeman began an investigation after being notified by the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration of suspicious activities at the local Revenue Office.

Ledbetter said officials had talked with several people who received either a fraudulent ID card or license, but officials do not know how long Janway had been involved in the scheme or how many fraudulent ID cards or licenses she may have issued.

People paid Janway between $ 300 to $ 1, 500 for the documents, according to Ledbetter.

“ If you had deeper pockets, then you got charged a little more, ” Freeman said.

Freeman and Ledbetter said they believe Janway and Beeks did not know the seriousness of their actions.

Freeman said with the ID cards and licenses, people can board airplanes, receive government aid and cross the border.

“ It was more of a crime of opportunity to make money, and (Janway and Beeks ) did not think through the implications, ” Ledbetter said.

Both women must serve one-sixth of their sentences before they will be eligible for parole.

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Americans such as these, make me more mad than the illegals!

moosetracks,

Me, too. They're traitors.

Sock it to em.