http://www.connpost.com/ci_4837181


Illegals testify to DMV license scam
DANIEL TEPFER dtepfer@ctpost.com
Article Last Updated:12/14/2006 07:46:52 AM EST

BRIDGEPORT — Not only could illegal immigrants buy driver's licenses at the city DMV office without even proving they could drive, but they were out in under 10 minutes.

That was according to four illegals, three from Mexico and one from Honduras, who testified in Superior Court Wednesday through an interpreter.

Former DMV examiner Jannette Rodriguez-Roman is on trial before a six-member jury accused of selling driver's licenses to illegal immigrants between October 2003 and March 18, 2004.

She is charged with violating the state Corrupt Organizations Racketeering Act and multiple counts of bribery, bribe receiving, conspiracy to commit bribe receiving and second-degree forgery.

Assistant State's Attorney John Malone spent the second day of trial calling each of the illegals to the stand. Each pointed out Rodriguez-Roman in the courtroom as the woman who supplied them with the licenses.

The three from Mexico — Juan Torres, Manuel Aquino and Faustin Agustin — each related how they crossed the border from Tijuana, avoiding border guards to meet a man they knew only as Coyote, waiting for them on the American side.

They said Coyote sped them on their way to Bridgeport for $2,000.

Aquino, who works at a local pizza restaurant, said in March 2004 he was playing soccer in Seaside Park when he was approached by a man who offered to get him a driver's license for $2,500. Aquino said he agreed to pay the man, whom he later identified as city barber
Advertisement
Adblock
Hector Portillo, and met him at the McDonald's on North Avenue.

After paying Portillo, Aquino said the man handed him a license application form and a printed number. He then escorted him to the DMV office.

Within minutes of walking in the door, Aquino said the number he held in his hand was called and he went to the window manned by Rodriguez-Roman, as Portillo had directed.

"I got the license in five or 10 minutes," he added.

Agustin testified that he paid Portillo $2,800 when they met in March 2004 at the Dunkin' Donuts on Boston Avenue. Under questioning by Malone, he said Rodriguez-Roman never even asked him if he could drive before issuing him a shiny new license.

Maria Maya, who now lives in Stamford with her husband and young son, testified she came to the United States in 1999 on a tourist visa from Honduras and never went back.

She said she met Portillo in February 2004 at the Bridgeport train station, where she handed him $3,000. Portillo then drove her to the DMV office, gave her a license application form and told her to go to the examiner who smiled at her.

Armed with a new driver's license, Maya said she and her husband bought a car. "But the police later took it," she said.

The four witnesses denied, under cross-examination by defense lawyer Robert Serafinowicz, that they made any deals with the state in exchange for their testimony. They have not been charged with a crime and each said they received no promise they will not be deported.

Portillo was later arrested for allegedly acting as middleman between the illegals and Rodriguez-Roman. He is to be called to testify by Malone next week.

The trial, before Judge Lawrence Hauser, is to continue this morning.