Wednesday, April 21, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Innocents caught up in DMV scandal

Some drivers unaware they had their licenses canceled in bribery scheme

Birt Groszek, right, displays her driver's license, which was suspended without her knowledge. She recently learned of the cancellation, the result of a scandal she had nothing to do with. Her husband, Tom, left, also had his license suspended. Photo by Gary Thompson.

Tom Groszek and his wife, Birt, thought they held valid Nevada driver's licenses. After all, they picked them up at the Department of Motor Vehicles, doing everything they needed to do to qualify.

Late last week, Groszek was stunned to find out their licenses were worthless and had been so for a long time.

"It's been well over a year I've been driving without a license," the Henderson man said this week.

The Groszeks may not be alone. A handful of other Nevadans could be unknowingly driving around with licenses that were canceled following a licenses-for-bribes scheme in the DMV.

"There's definitely a chance that may have happened," said Tom Jacobs, a spokesman for the DMV.

An undetermined number of licenses were revoked in early 2003, just before the arrest of former DMV employee Dalva Flagg.

She pleaded guilty late last year to federal charges that she collected more than $300,000 in bribes to provide unauthorized DMV identification documents to illegal immigrants.

Flagg sold licenses and identification cards, mostly from the Carey Avenue DMV office, between February 2000 and May 2002. She is scheduled to be sentenced June 28.

An internal DMV investigation found that Flagg licensed as many as 550 people during that time period, of whom about 300 were considered questionable.

Jacobs said letters were sent out to the latter group in December of 2002, asking license holders to verify their personal information. The Groszeks were on the list, he said.

About 250 people responded.

"If they didn't respond to us, we canceled the license," Jacobs said. "Most of the people who didn't respond, we can make an educated guess as to why."

But Groszek claims neither he nor his wife ever received a letter before their licenses were canceled.

Groszek only learned of his licensing status after his boss at Nevada Telephone, Bob Jankovics, received word from his company's insurer that fleet coverage would be yanked because of the use of unlicensed drivers like Groszek.

Jankovics thinks the DMV should have tried harder to contact people. "Why should anybody that this woman touched suffer?" he asked.

But Jacobs said the DMV could not have called license holders because it does not have phone numbers on file.

Jacobs said some people may have moved without notifying the DMV, so letters may have gone to old addresses. "The state is a transient one. It's not something people always remember."

But that's not the case with the Groszeks, who have lived at the same address since moving to Nevada almost five years ago.

The late 2003 formation of the DMV's Las Vegas ID fraud unit, after Flagg's arrest, would not have mattered in this case. The unit is primarily aimed at combating identity theft, fraudulent vehicle title applications and odometer fraud, and not fraud on the part of employees.

"What this employee was doing was circumventing the system," Jacobs said.

Jacobs could not quantify how many drivers could be facing the Groszeks plight. "If it was a significant number, we would have heard about it prior to this," he said.

"It was a valid concept that victims contacted us and scofflaws didn't. It's possible some people fell through the cracks," Jacobs said.

"Should there be somebody that fell through the cracks, we'll do everything we can to accommodate them and get them straight with the law," Jacobs said.

Anyone who is unsure about the status of their license can call Brandy Beach at the DMV at 775-684-4829, Jacobs said.