SAN DIEGO – A former Department of Motor Vehicles employee who accepted bribes from attorneys in exchange for helping their clients get positive results in hearings plead guilty to conspiracy to accept bribes, according to authorities.
Alva Benavidez worked at the California Driver Safety Office at the Department of Motor Vehicles since August 2000.
Appearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Karen S. Crawford this month, Benavidez admitted that she accepted more than $5,000 in cash and gifts from attorneys and their law firms in exchange for helping their clients obtain positive results in DMV hearings and unauthorized temporary licenses, officials said.
Benavidez also accepted gifts including cash, gift certificates, sunglasses, purses and other items of value, officials said.
According to court records, this is the evidence:
- Benavidez was an employee of the DMV since August 2000, where she worked as a Driver Safety Officer or DSO.
- As a DSO, Benavidez’s duties included presiding over hearings to determine whether a person charged with Driving Under the Influence should have their license suspended.
- As an employee of the DSO, Benavidez had access to files, records and information of the DMV, including temporary licenses.
- In her plea agreement, Benavidez admitted that between 2005 and August 2014, she entered into an agreement with six different attorneys and six of their staff or representatives (collectively “co-conspirators”) to aid the attorneys in obtaining favorable treatment for clients who were charged with DUIs.
- Some of the activity Benavidez admitted to in her plea agreement included stealing arrest packets from the DSO before the information about a DUI arrest could be entered into the DSO database, setting aside driver license suspensions, and providing unauthorized temporary driver licenses for people who had been arrested for DUIs.
Benavidez retired from the DMV in December 2014 after search warrants were executed at her home and office, according to officials.
She has been released on bond pending sentencing. Benavidez is scheduled to be sentenced on April 20.
Authorities said more criminal charges are possible against others involved in this fraud including the six attorneys who allegedly bribed Benavidez.
Anyone with information about corruption at the DMV is asked to contact the Federal Bureau of Investigation at 1-877-NO-BRIBE (662-7423), or the DMV’s Investigations Branch-Office of Internal Affairs at (951) 653-5357.