Posted on 05/20/2002 4:00:34 PM PDT by Shermy
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 driver's licenses for a fee to New Yorkers brought to Shelby County by Odtllah, of Cordova.
The FBI investigated whether Smith's co-defendants were linked to terrorists. But Donald said in April there was no evidence in the record to support the men had connections to Sept. 11 or ties to the World Trade Center bombing.
Prosecutor Tim DiScenza also said Monday that there was "no proof of any terrorist activity."
Smith died in suspicious circumstances Feb. 10, the day before a preliminary court appearance. The 49-year-old Memphis woman was alone early that Sunday morning, driving a car registered to Odtllah. The car veered off U.S. 72 in Fayette County and hit a utility pole, then burst into flames.
After almost a monthlong investigation, the Tennessee Highway Patrol determined that Smith's death was not caused by the wreck, but by "other means." No one has been charged in her death, which wasn't mentioned in court Monday.
Sentencing for the men is scheduled for June 27. Prosecutors have recommended the low end of the scale in federal sentencing, which is a maximum of five years and a minimum of zero.
A fifth defendant, Mohammed A. Fares, pleaded guilty earlier this month.
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Earlier story today...
1st of 4 trials in driver's license procurement case starts today
The first of four trials of men charged in a Tennessee driver's license fraud case that has drawn national attention begins today in federal court, three months after the mysterious death of a key defendant in a fiery car crash.
Each of the four men, three from New York City, one from Cordova and all with ties to the Middle East, is charged with one count of conspiracy to fraudulently obtain driver's licenses.
Mostafa Said Abou-Shahin, Khaled Odtllah, Sakher A. Hammad and his cousin, Abdelmuhsen Mahmid Hammad, will be tried separately over the next two weeks before U.S. Dist. Court Judge Bernice Donald.
The trial of Abou-Shahin begins today. His attorney, Clifton Harviel, will ask Donald to waive a jury trial and decide his guilt or innocence on her own.
"We just thought in the current world situation, shall we say, that a professional jurist might give us a better shake than a local jury," Harviel said.
Federal prosecutor Tim DiScenza has agreed to the waiver. If the waiver is granted, Harviel estimated the trial would take a day.
A fifth defendant, Mohammed A. Fares, pleaded guilty earlier this month and is expected to testify for the government at some or all of the trials.
Also charged was driver's license examiner Katherine Smith. But Smith died under suspicious circumstances Feb. 10, the day before a preliminary court appearance.
The 49-year-old Memphis woman was alone early that Sunday morning, driving a 1992 Acura Legend registered to Odtllah.
The car veered off U.S. 72 in Fayette County and hit a utility pole. Witnesses said intense flames prevented them from reaching the unresponsive driver.
After almost a month-long investigation, the Tennessee Highway Patrol determined that Smith's death was caused not by the wreck, but by "other means."
No one has been charged in her death.
Four of the fraud case defendants have been held without bond since their arrests on Feb. 5. Smith was released on her own recognizance the next day.
DiScenza cited the "most unusual and suspicious" nature of Smith's death, as well as "connections" to the World Trade Center, as reasons to deny bond.
When Sakher A. Hammad was arrested, he had in his possession a visitor's identification card that gave him access to the building just a few days before the terrorist attacks.
Hammad, a plumber, told federal authorities he was working on the sprinklers, according to court testimony.
DiScenza dropped government objections to a release on bond after Hammad's father, Peter Hansen, put up his Staten Island home as security for a $250,000 bond.
Hansen, a senior engineer for the City of New York, testified at the March hearing that his son was "born again" when he came legally to the U.S. from Jordan.
"America is our country," Hansen said as his son wept. "We are a very dedicated family. We love work . . . We would never think to do harm to anyone."
But DiScenza urged the judge not to grant bond to the others.
When Donald upheld detention without bond for the other four, she called them flight risks because of their immigration status or substantial connections through family to other countries, where they might flee if released.
She noted that Odtllah, the alleged leader of the fraud scheme, has a wife and family in Jerusalem.
But the judge said in her ruling there was no evidence to support "these potentially inflammatory assertions" about connections to Sept. 11.
Here's how prosecutors allege the scheme worked:
Odtllah, who has been living in Cordova for two years, offered Tennessee driver's licenses to illegal immigrants for a fee of around $1,000 each. The Hammads, both self-employed plumbers in Brooklyn, acted as middlemen, finding the clients and bringing them to Memphis, where Smith would issue them licenses.
In early February, the Hammads allegedly drove co-defendants Fares and Abou-Shahin and a juvenile to Memphis from New York City to get four driver's licenses - one in Fares's name and three in names that prosecutors have said appear to be aliases.
But a confidential informant had tipped a New York FBI agent about the Memphis trip. On Feb. 5, FBI agents and Tennessee Highway Patrol investigators were watching as Odtllah met the group from New York outside the testing station.
Sakher Hammad was also in town to get a second Tennessee driver's license. He and his cousin already had Tennessee licenses using the same Morning Lake Drive address of the apartment complex where Odtllah lived.
According to the FBI, Odtllah went inside the testing station and came back out with four applications. Odtllah had the others fill in the names and dates of birth; then he filled in the Morning Lake Drive address.
Odtllah then took the completed applications to Smith, who entered them into the state's computer system, according to the FBI.
The men were not issued driver's licenses that morning because the camera at the Summer Avenue testing station was broken. Odtllah was the only one of the group who met with Smith.
All six adults were arrested that day. The juvenile was not charged.
That is the case the prosecution is expected to make, based on an FBI affidavit and the testimony of FBI agent J. Suzanne Nash at two hearings. But it doesn't begin to explain Smith's death.
Nash testified that the fire that consumed the interior of Smith's car was set deliberately. Traces of gasoline were found on the victim's clothing and in the car, she said.
Harviel said last week that the trial of Abou-Shahin, 27, a carpenter from Egypt, will focus exclusively on the conspiracy charge and won't involve any revelations about Smith's death or alleged ties to terrorism.
It is amazing how corrupt TN has become and is as you noted. I'm glad that all of my ancestors left TN in the late 1800's and moved west.
Thanks for the feedback. Do you live there?
The good news was that the voters of TN voted against the criminal Goron in Nov. 2000.
Yea 45 years now. Bad politicans are nothing new here. If they weren't crooks before they got elected give them a term and they will be then. I've lived all my life under the Gore's being in Washington. Were in a bad mess now we have a senate canidate being pushed upon us by Washington with historically zero chance of winning. This is for Fred Thompsons seat another disappointment himself. A man who helped bring down the most corrupt administration in our states history turned to Jello in the Committee hearings then disgraced it more with a Not Guilty Vote for Slick Willy in the senate trial.
If the GOP would stop trying to be Democrats we wouldn't be in most of the mess we are in now both on a state and national level. It's not going to change till the people get mad enough to say no more of it and stop settling for second best canidates with less than desirable records on issues.
Works for me -- if they can make a simple assault or robbery carry a longer term because is is classified as a "hate" crime, they could do the same for crimes designed to aid terrorists.
I checked google's news search (don't know how far back it goes) and found nothing when I included "Tennessee" in the search.
All of the google web searches appear to tie closely to the original incident (early last year).
No. Shame on me, I was going to go down to the Shelby County Coroners office and armtwist a look at the report, though I wouldn't be surprised if it's still an open investigation.
But I'm now writing for a new outlet, so I may use that venue to shake the tree a bit. It'd make an interesting teaser for our website, at least.
-archy-/-
Well, sort of. It's really news about O.C. Smith, the Shelby County medical examiner. More after the grand jury indictments all come in, and their term expires, perhaps.
Yep. Per following:
Among his recent cases was the death of Harvard University biologist Don Wiley, whose accidental fall from a Memphis bridge in December fueled fears of terrorist kidnappings. The medical examiner also helped identify the body of Katherine Smith, 49, a state driver's license examiner who was found burned beyond recognition in February the day before a hearing on federal charges of helping five Middle Eastern men obtain fake driver's licenses. No one has been charged in her death.
There's a very real possibility that it wasn't Workman's bullet that killed that cop, and that the attempts to have him executed constitute a deprivation of his civil rights *under color of law.* That could make for some real interesting problems for witnesses who've perjured themselves or concealed exculpatory evidence, or worse. And it's interesting to note where Steve Parker, one of the other cops involved in the Workman case has ended up.
United States Code, U.S. Criminal Code, Section 242. -
Deprivation of rights under color of law
Whoever, under color of any law, statute, ordinance, regulation, or custom, willfully subjects any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or to different punishments, pains, or penalties, on account of such person being an alien, or by reason of his color, or race, than are prescribed for the punishment of citizens, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both; and if bodily injury results from the acts committed in violation of this section or if such acts include the use, attempted use, or threatened use of a dangerous weapon, explosives, or fire, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and if death results from the acts committed in violation of this section or if such acts include kidnapping or an attempt to kidnap, aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to commit aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to kill, shall be fined under this title, or imprisoned for any term of years or for life, or both, or may be sentenced to death.
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