Thread: Ohio woman on trial in Va in immigration scam

Ohio woman on trial in Va in immigration scam


April 22, 2009 9:15 AM ET

HARRISONBURG, Va. (AP) - An Ohio woman accused of conspiring to obtain bogus Ohio identification cards for illegal aliens in other states is on trial in federal court in Virginia.

Federal prosecutors rested their case against 31-year-old Nekeia Mack-Fuller of Reynoldsburg on Tuesday.

Mack-Fuller is charged with aggravated identity fraud and two conspiracy charges.

She was among eight people indicted in 2008 in a conspiracy apparently intended to help illegal immigrants obtain employment and avoid deportation. The other defendants have pleaded guilty in the case.

The indictment said three defendants from Virginia sold Puerto Rican birth certificates and matching Social Security cards to illegal aliens, then arranged their travel to Columbus, Ohio, to obtain fake state IDs.


Information from: Daily News-Record, http://www.dnronline.com


http://www.wric.com/global/story.asp?s=10227239

Some jobs Americans won't do. This American should never have done this job!

Woman acquitted in case involving giving ID cards to illegal immigrants
Wednesday, April 22, 2009 11:46 PM
By Pete DeLea

FOR THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
HARRISONBURG, Va.—A Reynoldsburg woman accused of issuing state identification cards to illegal immigrants was found not guilty of federal charges today.
Nekeia Mack-Fuller, 31, was one of eight people charged in the federal identity-theft ring, but the only one to be acquitted. The other seven all pleaded guilty to charges.

"I'm very pleased," she said after today's jury verdict. "I wasn't going to plead guilty to something I didn't do."

Mack-Fuller was charged with three felonies: aggravated identity fraud and two conspiracy charges. She could have faced up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

Prosecutors in U.S. District Court in Harrisonburg, Va., argued throughout the trial that Mack-Fuller should have noticed an influx of Puerto Rican documents being used to obtain Ohio IDs.

Prosecutors said Jose Gutierrez-Ramirez arranged for hundreds of illegal immigrants living in Virginia to obtain Ohio IDs at the Eastside License Agency on Scarborough Square with the help of Edwin Mendez.

Gutierrez-Ramirez, 35, was sentenced to 60 months in prison. Mendez, 33, was handed a 50-month sentence.

Mack-Fuller, a former manager at Eastside, maintained her innocence and refused to strike a deal with prosecutors.

Today, she took the stand in her own defense.

She told jurors that her boss was aware of the number of Puerto Rican documents being used at the agency, which is a private contractor authorized by the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles to issue IDs and driver's licenses.

"She told me as long as the documents are OK, everything will be fine," Mack-Fuller testified.

She was suspicious of the number of people Gutierrez-Ramirez brought into her office to obtain IDs but couldn't make inquiries because of the BMV's no-profiling policy. "We weren't allowed to question anybody," Mack-Fuller said.

Throughout the trial, the BMV's vulnerabilities were brought up. Several witnesses testified it was easier to use Puerto Rican documents in Ohio to obtain identification than in other states.

At the end of the trial, Judge Glenn Conrad described the Ohio system as "flawed," a sentiment that Mack-Fuller's attorney, David Heilberg, agreed with.

"It's a very broken system," Heilberg said. "Clearly, there are problems in Ohio."


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