http://www.newstimes.com/news/updates.php?id=1025691

Former DMV worker convicted in illegal license scam

BRIDGEPORT (AP) - A former examiner for state Department of Motor Vehicles has been convicted of 38 counts linked to selling hundreds of driver's licenses to illegal aliens and felons.

Jannette Rodriguez-Roman, 34, of Waterbury, was accused of violating the state Corrupt Organizations Racketeering Act and multiple counts of bribery, bribe receiving, conspiracy to commit bribe receiving and second-degree forgery.

She's the fifth former Bridgeport DMV worker to be prosecuted in the scheme to sell thousands of illegal licenses, but the first to go to trial. The other four have pleaded guilty and have been sentenced.

The alleged ringleaders of the scheme, Venita Bines, of Bridgeport, and Tracy Stevenson-Lucas, of Stratford, are serving 7-year sentences.

Authorities said the defendants sold more than 1,500 licenses and nearly 1,000 Connecticut identification cards between June 2000 and December 2004. The state has recovered only a small portion of the licenses, authorities have said.

Rodriguez-Roman, collapsed into sobs as the verdict was announced Thursday in Bridgeport Superior Court.

"Oh my God! Oh my God, my children, my children," she cried as judicial marshals handcuffed her and led her away.

She faces up to 330 years in prison when she is sentenced Feb. 2.