For truck drivers to operate 18-wheelers legally, they must first pass a physical exam and required written tests, undergo classroom instruction and behind-the-wheel training before they can even get to the mandatory skills test to obtain a commercial driver’s license (CDL). But seven people allegedly found a way to bypass all that— and fatten their pockets in the process in a wild CDL test-taking scandal in New York.
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The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) previously noted that around 450,000 new CDLs are issued every year in America. But in 2023, the Nassau County District Attorney’s office says one Black woman hid in plain sight in an elaborate ruse to obtain a fraction of those.
Between March 2023 and September 2023, prosecutors say Jamie Middleton visited the DMV’s Garden City branch to take nine CDL permit exams for seven different people — eight of which she passed. Surveillance images allegedly show Middleton wearing disguises like baggy clothes, fake facial hair, construction jackets and head coverings to pose as different men on “at least six different days,” per the Offices of the Inspector General.
It was only after the exams were passed is when the real applicants would allegedly show up at another DMV, grab their permits, then go about their merry way.
In one instance, prosecutors claim Middleton didn’t even bother to switch up her disguise when she allegedly took two exams… five minutes apart. Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly named Middleton’s peculiar fashion accessory she wore on another occasion that raised ‘brows: Long, acrylic nails, per ABC 7. She recalled: “The finger nails kind of gave it away.”
A whistleblower also noticed that “employees were processing CDL permit applications without applicants sitting for the required tests at the DMV location” and reported it, the indictment said. But that’s just the beginning.
Middleton, who allegedly charged as much as $3,000 per test, reportedly had some help from the inside.
Prosecutors claim two DMV employees who worked the counters, identified as Tawanna Whitfield, 36, and Satoya Mitchell, 35, would wave Middleton through to take the tests. A fourth defendant, Middleton’s sister, 33-year-old Kanaisha Middleton, was the DMV’s supervisor and was allegedly also in on the ruse. Now the three former DMV employees and three alleged CDL applicants, Omesh Mohan, Rene Sarduy and James Nurse, face felony charges.
Nurse, per the Inspector General, was the only one who managed to pass his road test. The 42-year-old, according to reports, ended up driving trucks at the Town of Hempstead Recycling Center for nearly two years. The town says they will move to fire Nurse because he was never legally qualified to drive a truck in the first place.
Now, a 51-count indictment has been issued after a “shocking breach of public trust,” Donnelly said, adding: “These defendants demonstrated for the right price they would sell out their integrity and the safety of others.”
Inspector General Lucy Lang said the charged state employees “sold out not just the safety of their fellow New Yorkers, but they sold out their oaths of office.” And this wasn’t the first DMV scandal in the area. Lang said, “This is now the second corruption scheme my office uncovered this year involving DMV employees who saw public service not as the privilege that it is, but as a permission slip for corruption.”
All defendants were arrested and face tampering with public records, falsifying business records, and corrupting the government charges. Their court dates are set for November, and if convicted, they could each could face up to seven years behind bars.
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