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Two former employees at an Indianapolis branch of the Bureau of Motor Vehicles have been charged with bribery and official misconduct after submitting passing scores for more than 300 written driving tests customers never took, investigators say.
On Aug. 7, the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office charged Winters Ann Vandyke and Gabriella C. Perry, former customer-service employees at the BMV’s Midtown branch, with one count each of bribery and official misconduct, both felonies.
The prosecutor’s office and the defendants did not immediately respond to The Indiana Lawyer’s requests for comment.
The charges were filed following an investigation conducted by the Indiana Office of Inspector General, with assistance from the Indiana State Police and the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles.
Between June 2023 and February 2024, the defendants entered passing scores for more than 300 written driving tests that were never taken, allowing the customers to obtain learner’s permits or driver’s licenses unlawfully, according to a news release from the inspector general’s office.
The defendants accepted money for each of the tests they falsely submitted, the news release stated.
The scheme was discovered after BMV staff at a different branch noticed an unusual pattern of customers suddenly getting their permits or licenses after having previously failed the written test. Investigators eventually linked the fabricated tests to VanDyke’s and Perry’s login credentials, the news release states.
“This investigation was launched based on BMV staff who noticed something and said something – and that led the OIG to uncover an alleged bribery scheme that not only betrayed Hoosier trust, but it also created the potential that unqualified and untested drivers were on Indiana’s roads,” Indiana Inspector General Jared Prentice said in a written statement.
Upon discovering the scheme in February 2024, the BMV invalidated all the licenses and permits and notified customers that they must retake and pass the exams in order to earn them.
The bribery charge, a Level 5 felony, carries a potential sentence of up to six years, and the official misconduct charge, a Level 6 felony, carries a potential sentence of up to two and a half years.
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