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A new law that went into effect last month means Dina Guirguis, an Egyptian in the United States on a temporary student visa, can't renew her Tennessee driver's license when it expires in a few years. The law allows only U.S. citizens or permanent legal residents to get a Tennessee driver's license. That rules out illegal immigrants and temporary visitors such as Guirguis. But Tennessee is offering a unique compromise -- a "certificate of driving" that illegal immigrants won't be able to use for official identification but that will allow them to drive. The certificate guarantees the person knows the...

Prison, fine for certifying driving tests By Pamela Perkins Contact March 17, 2004 A retired Memphis police officer was sentenced Tuesday to 18 months in federal prison and fined $20,000 for taking money for falsely certifying test results at her driving school - clearing the illegal aliens to apply for Tennessee driver's licenses. "I'm just sorry," said Charlotte Creasy, 57, before U.S. Dist. Court Judge Jon McCalla sentenced her. She pleaded guilty in November to mail fraud conspiracy. Federal prosecutor Steve Parker, member of the U.S. Attorney's anti-terrorism section, asked McCalla to pass a sentence that would send a message...

SACRAMENTO — After striking a deal over contentious security safeguards, embattled Gov. Gray Davis has offered unqualified support for divisive legislation that would give illegal immigrants the right to drive. While the measure targets the state’s burgeoning immigrant population, many Californians — regardless of citizenship or immigration status — could be affected. The compromise would require every applicant for a driver’s license to submit to a technologically advanced identification system to ensure the name matches the fingerprint. License fees, now $12, could double to raise the approximately $70 million for the Department of Motor Vehicles to move toward biometric fingerprinting....

PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) - A Michigan couple and two employees of the Secretary of State's office were accused Friday of selling forged driver's licenses to illegal immigrants and wanted criminals, officials said. According to police reports, Rogelio Gonzales took payments and steered undercover officers posing as illegal immigrants to the Secretary of State office in Pontiac. At the office, Gonzales' wife acted as an interpreter while two employees issued fraudulent driver's licenses, said Oakland County Prosecutor David Gorcyca. Secretary of State employees Andrea Cortez, 23, and Melinda Garrison, 37, were charged with conspiracy to sell forged driver's licenses and selling...

EAST BRUNSWICK, N.J. -- Hundreds of fraudulent documents were issued at a Division of Motor Vehicle's office here, but no criminal charges have been filed because the agency cannot link the fraud to specific employees. A recent state police audit of about 800 fraudulent documents found that 722 of them came from the East Brunswick office, DMV Director Diane Legreide said Wednesday. She said Rita Lambert, the office's former director who was among several DMV officials dismissed earlier this year, apparently was unaware of the fraud committed by staffers. Speaking with editors at the Home News Tribune of East Brunswick,...

At least four Seattle-area men were swept up by investigators of a multimillion-dollar auto theft ring that stretched from the Canadian border to Arizona.An indictment announced yesterday accuses 18 people from Washington, California and Arizona of conspiring for the past nine years to steal the vehicles and forge new documents for them in Arizona. More than 500 vehicles are believed to have been stolen, including some from the Seattle area. The total worth: more than $15 million.Fifteen of those charged have been arrested. Three remain at large, although one has begun efforts to surrender, according to Patrick Schneider of the...

(Jersey City-WABC, November 1, 2002) — There is a murder mystery for police in Jersey City. Firefighters putting out a car fire made a gruesome discovery on Friday morning. Two bodies were found in a burned out car in Jersey City. The Hudson County Prosecutors office is investigating this incident along with the Jersey City police. It is a crime that rarely eludes firefighters but this morning, police were aiding them. This happened in the parking lot of a Laid law School Bus Company. This morning, employees arrived at work surprised that a murder investigation was underway. It started around...

CHICAGO - Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan acknowledged that suspected sniper John Allen Muhammad is a member of the religious group. But Farrakhan said Saturday the man would be ousted from the Chicago-based group if he is convicted in the series of shootings that left 10 people dead and three wounded. "He has not formally been kicked out of the Nation of Islam, but certainly if he's found guilty of something like this he would not be considered at all a member," Farrakhan said. Farrakhan said he "grieves for the senseless loss of life" caused by the sniper shootings...

  ----- Original Message ----- From: <info@cdt.org> To: <policy-posts@cdt.org> Sent: Thursday, September 05, 2002 2:01 PM Subject: Policy Post 8.17: Privacy and Security Risks in Driver's License Proposals > > CDT POLICY POST Volume 8, Number 17, September 5, 2002> > A BRIEFING ON PUBLIC POLICY ISSUES AFFECTING CIVIL LIBERTIES ONLINE> from> THE CENTER FOR DEMOCRACY AND TECHNOLOGY> > CONTENTS:> > (1) Privacy and Security Risks in Driver's License Proposals> (2) CDT Calls for Moratorium on New Uses of Driver's License> (3) Fraud Common at State DMVs> (4) Japanese Privacy Protests Offer Lesson for U.S.> (5) Congressional Proposals on Driver's...

<p>State Rep. Ronnie Davis was indicted today on 15 felony counts in federal court, including allegations that he and a Murfreesboro woman tried to sell fake diplomatic passports to two Texas men and tried to defraud First Tennessee Bank.</p> <p>Davis, a Republican from Newport in East Tennessee, is charged along with Diana D. Burton of Murfreesboro, federal prosecutors said in a statement this morning.</p>

CURT ANDERSON, Associated Press WriterThursday, July 18, 2002 ©2002 Associated Press URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2002/07/18/national1643EDT0751.DTL (07-18) 14:34 PDT WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush's plan for uniform national drivers' license standards would be killed and a year-end deadline for anti-terrorism screening of airport baggage would be postponed indefinitely under legislation unveiled Thursday by House Republican leaders. The fine print of the 216-page bill creating a new Homeland Security Department, sponsored by House Majority Leader Dick Armey, also would scrap a Bush administration program that critics say encourages Americans to spy on each other and would give some technology companies involved in national security...

Four members of a fraudulent driver's license ring were sentenced Thursday to the nearly five months they've spent in prison awaiting trial on the federal conspiracy charge. Khaled Odtllah, head of the scheme to get the New York City men Tennessee driver's licenses with a phony Cordova address, was released hours after being sentenced by U.S. Dist. Judge Bernice Donald. But his three co-defendants - Mohammed Fares, Abdelmuhsen Mahmid Hammad and Mostafa Said Abou-Shahin - remained in custody to face deportation, a process that could take a year. They were in the country illegally at the time of their arrest...

Attorney slain in 100 North Main parking garage June 21, 2002 An attorney was shot to death just before 9 a.m. today as he was getting out of his car on the fourth floor of the parking garage of the 100 North Main Building. Early reports said he was shot four times by a well dressed man sporting braids. The shooter then fled on foot and got onto a Memphis Area Transit Authority bus.

Clement critical of state's security efforts Sundquist spokesman calls lawmaker's remarks 'nonsense' By Tom Humphrey, News-Sentinel Nashville bureau June 5, 2002 U.S. Rep. Bob Clement, campaigning for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination, on Tuesday attacked Gov. Don Sundquist for "ridiculous" shortcomings in the state's homeland security efforts. However, the man in charge of those security efforts seems somewhat baffled by Clement's remarks and overtures to help him gain security clearance. But what might be even more baffling is why a former Army brigadier general is still waiting for security clearance from the feds. Clement's position was labeled as "nonsense" by...

Medical examiner ambushed Bomb, barbed wire, acid used in attack on Smith By Yolanda Jones yojones@gomemphis.com June 3, 2002 An attacker ambushed Shelby County Medical Examiner Dr. O. C. Smith Saturday night, wrapped him from head to toe in barbed wire and strapped a bomb to his body. Police said Smith left his office at about 10 and was headed to the parking lot when someone threw an acid-like substance in his face to subdue him. For nearly three hours, he was unable to move or shout for help because of the barbed wire in his mouth. A security guard...

An unknown assailant attacked the Shelby County medical examiner late Saturday, wrapping him with barbed wire and strapping a bomb to his chest before leaving him in a stairwell outside his downtown Memphis office. Dr. O. C. Smith received minor injuries from the attack that included chemical burns. His attacker threw an acid type substance on Smith's face as he left work at 1060 Madison around 10 p.m. Smith was found by a security guard shortly after midnight. This is the second time in the last three months an explosive device or bomb has been found at the Shelby County...

After four men with ties to the Middle East pleaded guilty Monday in a Tennessee driver's license fraud case, new questions arose about a central figure in the case - a state driver's license examiner who died in a mysterious, fiery car wreck just days after her arrest. The case drew national attention earlier this year because of the still-unsolved death of Katherine Smith and the revelation one of the defendants, a naturalized plumber from Jordan living in New York, had been in the World Trade Center days before the twin towers were destroyed by hijacked airliners. In a hearing...

MEMPHIS, Tenn.- Three of four men charged in a Tennessee driver's license fraud case pleaded guilty Monday in federal court. Mostafa Said Abou-Shahin, Khaled Odtllah and Sakher A. Hammad each admitted before U.S. District Court Judge Bernice Donald that they tried to obtain the licenses illegally. The fourth defendant, Abdelmuhsen Mahmid Hammad, was to appear in court Monday afternoon. Each of the four men, three from New York City and one from the Memphis suburb of Cordova, had ties to the Middle East. The men were charged with operating a scam in which driver's license examiner Katherine Smith would provide...

One of five men charged in a scheme to fraudulently obtain driver's licenses in Memphis pleaded guilty Friday to the federal conspiracy charge. And the federal prosecutor handling the case said in court that Mohammed A. Fares of New York will probably testify against his four co-defendants at their trials. Fares was to have been the first of the five suspects to be tried before U.S. Dist. Judge Bernice Donald starting May 20. Fares and three other men with ties to the Middle East who lived in New York allegedly came to Memphis in February to illegally get Tennessee licenses...