Drivers license official pleads guilty to fraud

Friday, October 19, 2007

By BRENDAN KIRBY
Staff Reporter

Two people involved in a conspiracy to provide drivers licenses to undocumented workers in Mobile pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges Thursday.

The guilty pleas came in separate hearings in Mobile's federal court from Marcos Martinez, an illegal immigrant from Mexico whose activities prompted the investigation, and Melissa Marizette-Green, to whom the probe eventually led.

Martinez, 30, admitted that he bought a counterfeit Mississippi drivers license in order to get a job at Bender Shipbuilding & Repair Co.
The license was genuine looking because it was produced with equipment at the Tupelo, Miss., drivers license center. Marizette-Green, who worked at the center, admitted in her written plea agreement that she made between six and 25 licenses for illegal aliens.

Investigators uncovered the operation when Martinez introduced a pair of informants to an Uzbeki man in Gulfport who drove them to Tupelo. There, according to court records, they met Marizette-Green's husband, Alfred Joseph Green. He coordinated the production of the licenses, negotiated modifications to the $2,000 price that the informants had been quoted and served as a lookout while his wife made the IDs.

U.S. District Judge Kristi DuBose scheduled a hearing for Monday to take Green's guilty plea.

Marizette-Green, 37, admitted that she used a blend of real information -- such as the heights, weights and hair and eye colors of the undocumented workers -- and phony data, such as made-up home addresses.

As part of the plea bargain, prosecutors have agreed to recommend a prison term within a range set out in advisory sentencing guidelines. A preliminary calculation by the U.S. Probation Office suggests that could be a year to a year-and-a-half. Defense attorney Sid Harrell said he hopes for a sentence at the low end of that range.

DuBose set sentencing hearings for Martinez and Marizette-Green for February.

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