Local DMV employee arrested for taking bribes in return for driver’s licenses

ORANGE COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY PRESS RELEASE

Case # 15WF0525

Date: March 19, 2015

DMV EMPLOYEE ARRESTED AND CHARGED FOR TAKING BRIBES TO OBTAIN DRIVER’S LICENSES FOR TWO APPLICANTS

WESTMINSTER – A Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) employee was arrested and charged today for accepting bribes from customers in exchange for providing California driver’s licenses (CDL). Jose Alberto Carrillo, 47, Fresno, is charged with two felony counts of altering public documents and two felony counts of computer access and fraud. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of five years in jail. He was arrested today in Fresno and is out of custody on $20,000 bail. He is scheduled to appear for arraignment on April 20, 2015, at the North Justice Center, Fullerton. The time and department are to be determined.

At the time of the crimes, Carrillo worked as a Motor Vehicle Representative at the Westminster DMV Office.

On May 10, 2012, Carrillo is accused of offering to alter a customer’s DMV record to reflect that the customer had passed a written driving test, that he had previously failed, in exchange for $100. Carrillo is accused of instructing the customer to go to the men’s bathroom to hide the money in between papers to avoid video surveillance. When the customer returned from the bathroom, the defendant is accused of accepting the money that was hidden between the papers. Carrillo is accused of unlawfully accessing the man’s DMV record on the computer and falsely inputting that the customer had passed the written tests.

An interim CDL was issued to this customer. Without the record being altered to indicate that the customer passed the written tests, the CDL process could not have continued and the interim CDL could not have been issued.

On June 4, 2012, Carrillo is accused of illegally accessing another customer’s DMV record after business hours and entering false information that the customer had provided a U.S. birth certificate as proof of presence in exchange for $500.

This customer was issued a CDL. Without proof of legal presence, the CDL process could not have continued and the CDL could not have been issued.

The DMV became aware of the issue when one of the customers who had paid Carrillo came into the DMV complaining that he had not received his permanent CDL as promised. The DMV Investigations Division investigated this case.

Senior Deputy District Attorney Brock Zimmon of the Special Prosecutions Unit is prosecuting this case.

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TONY RACKAUCKAS, District Attorney

Susan Kang Schroeder, Chief of Staff
Office: 714-347-8408
Cell: 714-292-2718