An eagle-eyed Garden City Department of Motor Vehicles worker who noticed the gender of a commercial driver’s license test taker did not match that of the applicant led authorities to charge a 51-count indictment against seven members of an alleged DMV fraud ring.
Under the scheme, wannabe truck drivers would pay between $1,500 and $3,000 for a surrogate to take the test for them, officials said.
Jamie Middleton, 35, a woman who would sometimes disguise herself with a fake beard and mustache, took the exam nine times between March and September 2023 for seven different clients, according to Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly and New York State Inspector General Lucy Lang. She passed the test eight times, Donnelly said.
Her sister, Kanaisha Middleton, 33, was a DMV supervisor who facilitated the scheme, according to prosecutors.
Department of Motor Vehicles representatives Satoya Mitchell and Tawanna Whitfield, who were responsible for verifying the identity of the test taker, got a cut of the money to usher Jamie Middleton into the testing area despite the discrepancies in her appearance, prosecutors said.
On May 23, 2023, Jamie Middleton took two exams five minutes apart — one for Rene Sarduy, a Town of Hempstead Highway Department worker, and another for aspiring truck driver Omesh Mohan, prosecutors allege.
Both men then went to DMV branches in Springfield Gardens, Queens, and Bethpage days later to pick up their interim permits, according to authorities.
The permits are good for one year, during which time the holder is supposed to take and pass a road test to get a full commercial driver’s license, or CDL. Prosecutors said Mohan failed his road test.
James Nurse, a Town of Hempstead sanitation worker, got his permit on Aug. 16, 2023, in Massapequa, two days after Middleton took the exam for him in Garden City, according to authorities.
Nurse was able to pass his road test, prosecutors said, and obtained his full CDL in September 2023. He used his new license to drive recycling trucks for Hempstead’s Sanitation Department.
The Middleton sisters, Whitfield and Mitchell were arraigned earlier this month on charges of impairing the integrity of a government licensing exam, corruption and falsifying business records, according to court records. They all pleaded not guilty.
Nurse, Sarduy and Mohan were hit with charges of falsifying business records in addition to tampering with public records. They also pleaded not guilty.
Check back for updates on this developing story.