The RMV clerk accused of heading a scheme to issue fake IDs to illegal immigrants had two different IDs herself and lied about her frequency of foreign travel — prompting prosecutors to question what she might be hiding.
Evelyn Medina — the 56-year-old Registry of Motor Vehicles clerk arrested Wednesday in the fake ID scheme — had different birthdates on two driver’s licenses.
Her current Massachusetts driver’s license says Feb. 14, 1961, while her passport, her Dominican Republic birth certificate on file with the State Department and a second Massachusetts driver’s license lists her birthday as Feb. 15, 1961, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Eugenia Carris. Carris said she didn’t know why but added, “sometimes people change dates of birth to hide a juvenile record.”
Medina, on unpaid leave from the RMV, is among six charged with conspiring to help illegal immigrants get false documents.
When Medina handed over her passport, court officers also found that her travels to the Dominican Republic were more frequent than she had admitted. At first, Medina told court officers she’d “rarely” visited the Dominican Republic and “hadn’t been for three years,” Carris said.
Her passport revealed Medina went to the Dominican Republic in June, in November 2015, January 2015, April 2014, September 2013, September 2012, May 2009, March 2008, March 2005 and April 2005, prosecutors said.
Carris said she was concerned about Medina’s “less than forthcoming” responses.
“This case involves illegal immigrants largely from the Dominican Republic getting false IDs and licenses in this country,” Carris said. “I do not know — and it makes me wonder — what other connections this defendant might have to the larger overall scheme that has not been charged here.
“I do think that this defendant needs to understand the severity of the situation she faces” Carris said.
“She was the main target in this investigation. She has issued the most fakes here. She faces the most time. Clearly by the way she undertook the interview (Wednesday), the respect for this court and its officers needs to be emphasiz
Judge Marianne Bowler ordered Medina to be monitored with an electronic bracelet and confined in her home under a curfew from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. because, she said, “there is a possibility for a risk of flight here. particularly since this is a document case.”
Medina’s lawyer, Scott Lauer, said his client “was not dishonest in her answers” because she has always thought her birthday was Feb. 14 and was told by her family that her birth certificate — and therefore her passport — was mistaken. He admitted her answers about her travels were “not a model of clarity” but she didn’t intend to misrepresent herself.
“She was under a great deal of stress and certainly could have provided a more wholesome answer,” Lauer said.
“This is not a woman who does not take seriously the business she has before the court.”