TRENTON
– Attorney General Anne Milgram and
Criminal Justice Director Gregory A. Paw
announced that an Irvington police officer
has been indicted on charges she fraudulently
obtained a New Jersey digital driver’s
license bearing her photo but the name of
a friend.
According
to Director Paw, Robin M. Brown, 41, of
Irvington, an officer with the Irvington
Police Department, was charged in a three-count
state grand jury indictment with second-degree
use of another’s personal identifying
information, third-degree tampering with
public records or information, and third-degree
forgery. The indictment was handed up late
yesterday.
The
indictment alleges that on June 9, 2006,
Brown obtained a duplicate digital driver’s
license bearing her own photo but issued
in her friend’s name at the Newark
Motor Vehicle Agency. Brown allegedly used
her friend’s birth certificate and
other identifying documents to obtain the
license and submitted an application with
a forged signature for the friend.
The
alleged fraud was discovered when the friend
came to the Irvington Motor Vehicle Agency
to change the address on her license, and
an MVC clerk noticed that the photo on file
for the friend was actually Brown. The clerk
knew Brown because Brown was working at
the Irvington Motor Vehicle Agency as part
of a program that places police officers
in motor vehicle agencies to stop document
fraud.
The
case was investigated by the State Police
Auto Unit Document Fraud Squad and the Motor
Vehicle Commission. Supervising Deputy Attorney
General Jacqueline Smith, head of the MVC
Unit in the Division of Criminal Justice
- Major Crimes Bureau, presented it to the
grand jury.
Second-degree crimes carry a maximum sentence
of 10 years in state prison and a criminal
fine of $150,000, while third-degree crimes
carry a maximum sentence of five years in
prison and a fine of $15,000. The indictment
is merely an accusation and the defendant
is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
The
indictment was handed up to Superior Court
Judge Gerald J. Council in Mercer County,
who assigned the case to Essex County, where
Brown will be ordered to appear at a later
date to answer the charges. The indictment
is linked to this release at www.njpublicsafety.com.
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