BROCKTON, MASS. (WHDH) - Two people have agreed to plead guilty to charges in connection with alleged conspiracies to give passing scores to people who did not actually pass state Registry of Motor Vehicles tests in Brockton, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts announced on Thursday.
The U.S. Attorney’s office laid out allegations in its announcement, describing ways Mia Cox-Johnson, 43, and Estevao Semedo, 61, both of Brockton allegedly helped drivers get learner’s permits and licenses when they either failed or did not show up for their tests.
Prosecutors said Cox-Johnson, a former manager of the RMV service center in Brockton, took money in exchange for passing scores on passenger vehicle and commercial learner’s permit tests between December, 2018 and October, 2019.
Among payments, prosecutors said Cox-Johnson accepted $1,000 in December of 2018 to give a passing score to a person who had previously failed six learner’s permit tests. Prosecutors said that person had been taking the test in their native language. Cox-Johnson then allegedly scored the person’s test as passing when taken in English, according to prosecutors.
On another occasion in 2019, prosecutors said Cox-Johnson accepted $200 from a person taking three multiple-choice tests they needed to pass to get a commercial learner’s permit. Prosecutors said Cox-Johnson scored the person as having passed the tests even though the person failed one test.
Prosecutors said Semedo separately conspired to defraud the RMV into issuing licenses to drivers who failed their road test in his role as the owner of a driving school. As part of the scheme, prosecutors said Semedo paid a road test examiner at the Brockton RMV service center “to misrepresent to the RMV that certain driver’s license applicants had passed their road test when in fact they had not.”
Prosecutors said Semedo’s actions included cases where applicants didn’t show up to take their tests, leading the RMV to mail licenses to “unqualified applicants,” according to prosecutors.
Cox-Johnson and Semedo are both facing multiple charges, according to prosecutors. Officials this week said plea hearings have not yet been scheduled.
Last year, a supervisor at the Brockton RMV who noticed irregularities with driving tests blew the whistle on the scandal. The RMV announced it had fired four employees. Roughly 2,100 drivers also got letters informing them they would have to retake their driver’s tests.
Gov. Maura Healey was asked about issues at the Brockton RMV site on Thursday, saying that the RMV had, “months ago, reported that there had been former employees engaged in these practices.”
“They’ve been held accountable, they’ve been terminated,” Healey said.
“That’s what we need,” Healey continued. “We need integrity in the system. The public needs to be able to rely on integrity in the system.”
Healey said she is “glad swift action was taken.”
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