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TRENTON
– Attorney General Zulima V. Farber
announced that two former Motor Vehicle
Commission (MVC) clerks at the Morristown
MVC agency were each sentenced today to
five years in state prison for selling driver’s
licenses to unauthorized persons.
Tressa
V. Schumacher, 36, of Wharton, and Trucinder
“Trudy” Clark, 36, of Morristown,
both former clerks at the MVC agency on
Speedwell Avenue in Morristown, were sentenced
by Superior Court Judge Salem Vincent Ahto
in Morris County. Both had pleaded guilty
on April 17 to a single charge of conspiracy
to commit official misconduct.
The
pair were arrested on March 18 by investigators
from the Division of Criminal Justice following
a four-month investigation by the Division
of Criminal Justice and the Motor Vehicle
Commission. A third defendant, Iftikar Shaida,
54, of Morris Plains, who brokered sales
of unauthorized licenses, was also arrested
and has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to
commit official misconduct. He faces sentencing
at a later date.
“Within
a two-month period, we arrested these defendants,
secured guilty pleas and sent them to state
prison,” said Attorney General Farber.
“The swiftness of this prosecution
and the resulting sentences demonstrate
our resolve to treat these crimes with zero
tolerance.”
“In
this post-9/11 world, we cannot afford to
have public officials or employees compromising
the safety of our citizens by fraudulently
selling official forms of identification,”
said Division of Criminal Justice Director
Gregory A. Paw. “We will remain vigilant
and prosecute these crimes to the full extent
of the law when we uncover them. Our investigation
is continuing.”
The
two clerks issued New Jersey digital driver’s
licenses to individuals who paid several
thousand dollars per license to the broker
and who were not required to provide the
MVC with any of the required identification
documents to demonstrate their legal authority
to obtain a license. The broker gave a share
of the money paid for each unauthorized
license to the clerk who issued it.
During
the investigation, it was revealed that
at least 15 unauthorized licenses were issued
by the clerks. As part of the investigation,
video surveillance recordings were made
of some transactions involving the two clerks
and the broker at the Morristown MVC agency.
Schumacher
and Clark were suspended without pay immediately
after their arrest. They are barred from
ever holding public employment again as
part of the sentence imposed by Judge Ahto.
The
investigation was conducted by State Investigator
Nick Olenick and Supervising State Investigator
Daniel O’Brien of the Division of
Criminal Justice and Investigator Jack Hartwick
of the MVC. Deputy Attorney General Debra
Conrad prosecuted the case.
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