Thread: GA: Examiners traded driver’s licenses for cash, indictmen

Examiners traded driver’s licenses for cash, indictment says
136 illegal immigrants got licenses without taking test, authorities say
By MARY LOU PICKEL

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Four former driver’s license examiners who worked in Lithonia have been indicted in a scheme to issue more than 130 licenses to illegal immigrants. Two of the examiners also obtained false commercial driver’s licenses and landed jobs driving MARTA buses, according to an indictment from a federal grand jury.

Former examiners Shijuanna Cobb, 33, of Ellenwood, Rickell Patterson, 31, of Covington, Angela Read, 38, of Lithonia and Chardye Lloyd, 23, of Conyers were arrested Wednesday and arraigned before a U.S. magistrate judge in Atlanta, according to a statement issued by David Nahmias, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia.

The four examiners were charged with identity theft and conspiracy to commit fraud, related to issuing licenses for the illegal immigrants. The four also were charged separately with conspiracy to transfer false identification related to a handful of commercial driver’s licenses.

Cobb and Read received their false commercial driver’s licenses in 2007 from their co-worker Patterson, according to the indictment. A third person who was not an examiner received a commercial license from Read in 2007. That man was not identified.

Cobb and Patterson manually typed passing scores into the man’s driving record, which allowed Read to issue him a commercial license, the indictment said.

All three later were hired by MARTA as bus drivers.

Cobb and Read were suspended Wednesday, said Andrea Coleman, a spokeswoman for MARTA. The third driver was suspended Thursday, and all three will be terminated, she said.

Cobb and Read were assigned to different routes, filling in where needed, Coleman said. They did not have fixed routes. The third person’s route was not identified.

MARTA had no way of knowing the commercial driver’s licenses were false, she said.

“We did all of our checks, and all of our systems worked,â€

$7,000 and $8,000 this makes no sense to me. Stay home and keep your money. They are making more money than this either by crime or under the table work. No one pays that much money to get very little in return. That drivers license is a key to something else besides moving freely around in this country.

Dixie

Source has since changed the title and next sentence of article so amended to that.

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