News Release
U.S. Department of Justice
United States Attorney
District of Rhode Island
August 7, 2009
Former RI DMV clerk sentenced to prison for
producing fraudulent licenses
A federal judge today sentenced Dolores Rodriguez LaFlamme, a former employee of the Rhode Island Division of Motor Vehicles, to three years in federal prison for producing fraudulent drivers’ licenses. In November 2008, a jury found LaFlamme guilty of producing fraudulent licenses that she and coconspirators sold.
Acting United States Attorney Luis M. Matos announced the sentence, which Chief U.S. District Court Judge Mary M. Lisi imposed in U.S. District Court, Providence. Immigration officials have ordered that LaFlamme, a native of the Dominican Republic, be deported following her prison sentence.
During a trial in November 2008, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Richard W. Rose and Richard B. Myrus presented evidence that, between August 2006 and October 2007, LaFlamme used her position as a license clerk at the DMV to fraudulently produce 35 drivers’ licenses. She sold the licenses through middlemen to customers who needed false licenses either because they couldn’t pass a written driver’s license exam, or because they wanted to hide their true identities. The price for a fraudulent license was as much as $2,700.
According to the evidence, LaFlamme produced the phony licenses by manipulating the DMV’s process for issuing licenses to drivers with existing licenses from other states.
The evidence showed that, for the fraudulent licenses she produced, the drivers did not fill out applications with the Rhode Island DMV and did not have licenses in the states where they were purported to have them.
A government informant testified during the trial that he bought a fraudulent license while posing as a drug dealer who needed an alias.
An investigation by the Rhode Island State Police uncovered the fraud. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force, the FBI, and the enforcement unit of the Rhode Island Division of Motor Vehicles also participated.
LaFlamme, 41, has been detained under an Immigration hold since her arrest in October 2007.
In addition to Assistant U.S. Attorneys Rose and Myrus, Assistant U.S. Attorney Sandra R. Hebert contributed to the prosecution.
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