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Samuel A. White, 56, and Laselies A. Hylton, 64, both of Kingston, and Lovell Weller, 53, of Roseboro, N.C., were all sentenced to three years probation by Judge Lawrence Kahn in U.S. District Court in Albany.
White and Weller were also slapped with a $3,000 fine; Hylton was fined $1,000. All three were ordered to perform varying degrees of community service, authorities said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Tina Sciocchetti said she had pushed for prison time for each of the suspects. Sciocchetti said the government had made no agreement with any of them for any further cooperation in the case.
Sciocchetti said federal sentencing guidelines are advisory, and that the judge was allowed to sentence the men from zero to 15 years in prison.
The suspects had faced a maximum of 15 years in prison for participating in the scheme discovered by authorities in 2000, when they arrested Donna Keefe, a teller. Keefe, who pleaded guilty that year to a felony charge of knowing and unlawful production and transfer of an identification document, is expected to be sentenced Oct. 29, Sciocchetti said.
Another teller, Jeanne P. Riggins, 53, of Kingston, was also charged with accepting bribes to produce driver's licenses for illegal aliens. She was sentenced to three years probation earlier this month, Sciocchetti said. Riggins could have received up to 15 years in prison.
Two others, Cargill Lawrence of New York City and Delrine Campbell of New Jersey, have also been sentenced for crimes in connection with receiving licenses. Lawrence, jailed on the charge for four months, was sentenced to time served, Sciocchetti said. Campbell received one year probation and a substantial amount of community service, the attorney said.
The cases all stem from an investigation that started in 2000 when authorities learned that Keefe illegally issued licenses to people she knew had suspended driving privileges.
In 2002, investigators discovered Keefe had unlawfully produced licenses for 30 to 40 Indian and Middle Eastern "non-U.S. citizens" from the New York and New Jersey area during her employment from 1995 to 2000. Those issued licenses had been referred to Keefe through at least two brokers in the Kingston area, Middle Easterners who paid Keefe hundreds of dollars for each application that she falsified and submitted to the Department of Motor Vehicles.
In 2003, federal authorities charged Riggins.
White, Hylton, and Weller acted as brokers who directed Jamaican illegal aliens to Riggins, authorities said. Riggins was paid an average of $500, a portion of which she shared with the referring broker. Authorities said the conspirators illegally produced at least 42 driver's licenses and shared at least $21,000 in profits.
