Seven people — including state Department of Motor Vehicle workers and Town of Hempstead employees — have been arrested in connection with an alleged commercial driver's license cheating ring centered at the Garden City branch of the DMV.
Kanaisha Middleton, 33, the former Garden City DMV supervisor, her sister Jamie Middleton, 35, and former DMV employees Tawanna Whitfield, 36, and Satoya Mitchell, 35, were each charged with impairing the integrity of a government licensing examination, corrupting the government, tampering with public records, and multiple counts of falsifying business records.
Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly called it “an organized breach of public trust,” adding it also betrayed “the trust of millions of drivers using Long Island's roadways.”
According to Donnelly, Jamie Middleton allegedly took nine CDL exams between March and September 2023, passing the test eight times for seven applicants.
James Nurse, a 42-year-old Town of Hempstead sanitation employee, was the only one to receive a permit; doing so on Aug. 16, 2023, at the Massapequa branch of the DMV after Jamie Middleton allegedly took his exam two days before in Garden City, Donnelly said.
Nurse, alongside 44-year-old Town of Hempstead Department of Highways employee Rene Sarduy and 42-year-old Omesh Mohan were also charged in the indictment with tampering with public records and falsifying business records.
All seven individuals have pleaded not guilty. If convicted, they each face a sentence of 2 to 7 years in prison. Mitchell, Whitfield, Nurse, and Jamie Middleton are due back in
First District Court in Hempstead on Nov. 6. Kanaisha Middleton, Sarduy, and Mohan are due back in court on Nov. 12.
"The state employees charged in this 51-count indictment sold out not just the safety of their fellow New Yorkers, but they sold out their oaths of office,” State Inspector General Lucy 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.”
Donnelly confirmed that the investigation into the alleged scheme is still ongoing.
