Chattanooga-area driving school searched as part of probe
The investigation, code-named Operation Crooked Highway, led to six arrests Wednesday that included one current and one former state employee.
Winchester-Chattanooga Driving School owner Bryan Guess was charged with paying bribes to driver’s license workers to obtain the documents illegally. He pleaded innocent at a preliminary hearing.
“I think there’s a lot of hysteria going right now about driver’s licenses,” said Robert Carter, Guess’ lawyer. “The public’s very sensitive to non-citizens getting driver’s licenses.”
A federal indictment lists charges against Guess and the others ranging from paying bribes, taking bribes and transporting illegal workers into the state to get the fraudulent driving documents.
Authorities said they won’t know how many illegal documents were issued until all evidence is studied and declined to speculate on the total. They did say that one state worker accepted $20 per student in bribes for about 1,000 licenses or certificates.
Prosecutors said Winchester Driving School had a contract with the state to issue “third-party certificates” after providing six hours of driving instruction and administering written and road driving tests to students. The school was accepting money to issue the third-party certificate without any training or tests, the indictment said.
About 100 illegal immigrants are being deported as a result of the investigation, federal immigration agent Rick Crocker said.
U.S. Attorney Jim Vines said three people, including a former state worker at a driver’s license station in the Nashville suburb of Gallatin, had already pleaded guilty in the case.
The Winchester driving school is one of 42 companies in the Cooperative Training Program that allows students to earn a driving certificate after 30 hours of classroom instruction and six hours of driving training. Ten of the companies are privately owned.
Interim Safety Commissioner Gerald Nicely said the department is studying an overhaul of licensing procedures, including how to prevent fraud.
The Safety Department has been at the center of a series of scandals, including Highway Patrol officers with criminal backgrounds, ticket-fixing and an atmosphere of political favoritism. Nicely has been assigned there temporarily to help develop a reform plan.
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Information from: Chattanooga Times Free Press, http://www.timesfreepress.com