DMV Charges - NY DMV clerks charged with altering tickets
By VALERIE BAUMAN
Associated Press Writer

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) – A ticket-fixing investigation has led to felony charges against three New York state workers and a Queens man accused of taking payments from commercial drivers to make their traffic violations disappear.

The state Inspector General says more than 1,475 moving violations were altered or reduced in Manhattan and Brooklyn in the past two years.

Officials say taxi operators and other drivers pay so-called "brokers" hundreds of dollars to negotiate tickets with Department of Motor Vehicles clerks.

Officials claim the clerks would reduce the tickets to bicycle or skateboard infractions. In other cases tickets were intentionally lost in the system through changing driver identification numbers, addresses, or name spellings so they wouldn't surface in the database.

"This is merely the beginning of an ongoing case," Inspector General Joseph Fisch said in a written statement. "This behavior creates a danger on our roads and is an insult to law-abiding citizens who pay their traffic fines."

Fisch said the investigation would also extend to drivers who were initially issued the tickets.

The Manhattan District Attorney's office filed charges against DMV clerks Deborah Perez, 40, of Staten Island and Norma Lamboy, 52, and her son, Jose Concepcion, 29, both of Brooklyn. Robert Vera, 51, of Queens was also arrested and accused of working as a ticket "broker." All four face felony charges of tampering with public records in the first degree.

DMV investigators uncovered the scams last year after Lamboy and Perez were disciplined for diverting traffic cases in the database.

An attorney for Concepcion did not immediately return calls for comment. Lamboy's attorney, Robert Levy, said he was studying the charges.

Vera and Perez hadn't been assigned attorneys late Tuesday.