A Southeast woman, convicted on bribery charges for helping a former Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) worker fix parking tickets for a “fee,” will have to repay the District $200,000 as part of her sentence.
Sherry J. McKnight yesterday was sentenced to 46 months in jail for her role in the scheme in which she accepted bribes from customers whom she steered to DMV worker Tonette R. Cooks, who erased their parking fines and traffic violations from the agency’s computer system.
U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler said she gave McKnight, 39, the maximum penalty recommended by federal sentencing guidelines because of the amount of money involved and the nature of her crime.
“I think bribery is a cancer in the public sector,” Judge Kessler said, adding that it damages the morale of other civil servants and “destroys the confidence of Americans” in their political system.
McKnight, who was unemployed at the time of her crime, will serve the full sentence in a federal prison, with possible time off for good behavior, and will be supervised by a probation officer for three years after her release.
Yesterday’s sentence was applauded by Assistant FBI Director Michael A. Mason, D.C. Police Chief Charles Ramsey, U.S. Attorney Roscoe C. Howard Jr., D.C. Inspector General Austin Anderson, and D.C. Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi. Officials from the DMV could not be reached for comment.
W. Gregory Spencer, McKnight’s attorney had asked for the minimum 37 months jail time because his client has been addicted to cocaine and marijuana since she was 16. But prosecutors said yesterday McKnight knew what she was doing despite her addiction.
“She was very aware that what she was doing was against the law,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Debra L. Long-Doyle told the Judge Kessler.
Prosecutors said McKnight would wait in or near the K Street office of the Bureau of Traffic Adjudication and solicit bribes from motorists who came to pay multiple traffic or parking fines.
Once she had secured a bribe — usually $500 or more, depending on the amount of unpaid violations — McKnight would send the customer to see her conspirator Cooks.
Cooks, one of six tellers working in the office in Northeast, would erase records from the DMV’s computer and issue a phony receipt for the customer. She then would electronically “stamp” the green-and-white computer printout to falsely indicate that all the customer’s violations had been paid.
Finally, Cooks would fail to record any payment in the District’s computer system, effectively “erasing” all record of the fines.
Both Cooks and McKnight pleaded guilty to one count of bribery last fall. Cooks, 28, is awaiting a sentencing date from Judge Kessler.
Local and federal law-enforcement officials said they began investigating the bribery scheme in early January 2003. Agents from the FBI, D.C. officials, D.C. police officers and private investigators were involved in the initial investigation.
In response to corruption complaints from irate DMV customers, the FBI initiated an undercover operation last spring.
McKnight was arrested last May 22 when she accepted a $500 bribe for $1,105 in fines from an undercover investigator and took the money straight to Cooks. The incident was caught on videotape.
Investigators eventually recovered computer records of the scheme, which they estimate cost the District between $200,000 and $400,000 in lost revenues.
During the hearing yesterday, McKnight was tearful but declined to comment.
Judge Kessler, in pronouncing sentence, said she ignored a plea bargain which recommended minimal prison time for McKnight.
“If there’s anything American citizens can’t stand, it’s paying parking tickets,” the judge said.
The bribery scheme is the latest in a series of problems at the DMV in the past several years. Motorists seeking licenses and other services often have complained about long lines and delays caused by problems with the agency’s computers.
Officials at the DMV updated their computer system earlier this year, saying they hope this will improve customer service at the agency, and D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams pledged in January to revamp the agency.
Three of six DMV sites in the District offer vehicle-registration service, four offer driver’s licensing services and only one site, the K Street office where McKnight and Cooks committed their crimes, offers traffic adjudication and ticket payment facilities. The K Street site is scheduled to close, and the long-delayed vehicle inspection station on West Virginia Avenue Northeast is scheduled to open in early summer.
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