Newark Woman Gets Four Years for Selling Driver's Licenses

A 29-year-old city woman was sentenced Wednesday to four years in state prison after admitting her guilt in a scheme to sell driver’s licenses to applicants who lacked proper identification, the state Attorney General’s office announced.

In May Laquanda Murray, who had been employed at the motor vehicle office in East Orange, pleaded guilty to charges she helped sell licenses from November 2008 to March 2009. Murray, who was convicted of second degree conspiracy and third degree tampering, will also have to pay a $10,000 fine and is barred from public employment in the state.  

Murray was among 40 people indicted in December 2011 for selling the licenses, often to non-citizens who paid up to $7,000 each. The sale of licenses involved employees at motor vehicle offices throughout North Jersey, including Lodi, Jersey City and Edison, the attorney general’s office said. 

“By unlawfully selling driver’s licenses, this motor vehicle clerk sold out the public’s trust and the security of the people of New Jersey,” said Attorney General Jeffrey Chiesa.  “Prison is the appropriate sentence for this type of corruption, which can play into the hands of criminals who use black market driver’s licenses to engage in fraud or commit other offenses.”