Four charged with identity theft, document forgery

By Cleve Wiese
Published: June 7, 2008

Four employees of Don Juan’s Mexican restaurant in Fishersville have been arrested on charges of identity theft and document forgery.

Authorities are searching for 10 more Don Juan’s employees facing the same charges in an ongoing investigation that now involves the Virginia State Police, the U.S. Marshal’s Service and the Department of Homeland Security, said Trooper Timothy Simmons of the Virginia State Police. All the suspects are illegal aliens, Simmons said.

Three of the employees were arrested at 11:00 a.m. Friday at the restaurant, located on Route 250 between Staunton and Waynesboro, while officers simultaneously executed a search warrant at a residence on the 1500 block of Jefferson Highway where some of the employees had been living, Simmons said.

The ongoing investigation began May 19 when Don Juan’s employee Crisogono Hernandez, 23, of Fishersville was pulled over at the intersection of Barterbrook Road and Frontier Drive in Augusta County for disregarding a stoplight, Simmons said. Hernandez initially produced a phony identity card, but eventually admitted he was an illegal alien and was arrested, Simmons said.

When investigators following up on the arrest went to Don Juan’s Restaurant to examine the business’s employment records, a manager there seemed “very nervous,â€