Former Texas DPS employee charged with illegal driver’s license scheme

SAN ANTONIO, Texas — A former Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) employee was arrested Thursday for her alleged role in an illegal driver’s license scheme.

This arrest was announced by U.S. Attorney Richard L. Durbin Jr., Western District of Texas; Texas DPS Director Steven C. McCraw; and Acting Special Agent in Charge Aristides Jimenez, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) San Antonio.

This investigation is being conducted by the Texas Rangers along with HSI special agents.

Linda A. Perez, 47, is charged by a federal grand jury indictment that was returned Sept. 3 with falsifying an identification document and four counts of using an interstate wire facility to aid an unlawful activity.

According to the indictment, from November 2014 until May 2015, the former DPS Driver’s License Division customer service representative in San Antonio received bribes to process Texas driver’s licenses for illegal aliens.  The bribes she allegedly accepted amounted to between $1,000 and $2,000 for each fraudulent license.  The indictment further alleges that Perez input materially fraudulent information into the Texas DPS computer system in order to process the driver’s license, and issue it by U.S. Mail to the illegal alien.

Perez had her initial appearance in federal court Sept. 3 and released on a $30,000 bond.  No trial date has been scheduled.  Upon conviction, Perez faces up to 15 years in federal prison on the transfer count and up to five years in federal prison on each of the remaining counts.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Moore, Western District of Texas, is prosecuting this case.

An indictment is merely a charge and should not be considered as evidence of guilt.  The defendant is considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.