DMV Employee Convicted of Falsifying Records for Commercial Drivers Licenses

Posted By CotoBlogzz

Rancho Santa Margarita, CA - Michelle Carbajal , an employee of the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) was convicted today of altering driver's license records and issuing commercial licenses to individuals who had not passed the required written and driving tests in exchange for money, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s office. 

Carbajal, 38, Fullerton, pleaded guilty to 21 felony counts of altering public documents and 21 felony counts of computer access and fraud.  At the time of the crime, Carbajal was an employee at the Fullerton office of the DMV and had the ability to alter driver's license records through her work

Between Sept. 9, 2008, and April 27, 2010, Carbajal accepted money from 14 individuals in exchange for unlawfully altering their driver's license records. These 14 individuals were referred to her through a third party or parties, who are unidentified at this time.

Carbajal marked in the records of the 14 individuals who had passed both the written and driving tests to obtain a commercial license. Carbajal's actions endangered public safety, as some of these tests were safety-related including proper use of specialized brakes, proper pulling of double trailers, the ability to drive semi-trucks and other commercial vehicles, among other skills. None of the 14 individuals had passed any of the tests. 

In some instances, Carbajal altered the records on one day and in other cases altered the records on multiple days. After altering the records to falsely represent that the tests had been passed, Carbajal issued commercial licenses to the 14 individuals. 

In all, the 14 purchasers paid $23,700. It is unclear as of now how much Carbajal fraudulently accepted and how much was paid to the unidentified third party/parties.