ID Theft Charges Filed in MN Bus Crash
2008-02-29 20:12:01
By STEVE KARNOWSKI
Associated Press Writer
MINNEAPOLIS
(AP) — Federal prosecutors filed identity theft charges Friday against
a woman who was driving a van that crashed into a school bus in
southwestern Minnesota, killing four students.
Olga Marino Franco
del Cid, 24, of Minneota, had already been charged in state court with
four counts of criminal vehicular homicide. The new charges accuse her
of giving authorities a false name and Social Security number after the
Feb. 19 crash near Cottonwood.
Franco's attorney, Manuel
Guerrero, declined to comment on the new charges, saying he hadn't seen
them. Franco did not immediately return a message left at the Lyon
County jail in Marshall.
Right after the crash, Franco identified
herself as Alianiss Nunez-Morales, but immigration investigators said
they found the real Nunez-Morales in Connecticut. She told them her
purse and identification documents were stolen more than six months ago
in Puerto Rico, according to an ICE affidavit.
The affidavit
alleges that Franco used Nunez-Morales' Social Security number to get a
Minnesota identification card. She is accused of giving the number to
two Minnesota companies where she worked.
When ICE agents
searched her home in Minneota a week ago, they found a Guatemalan birth
certificate, a certified Guatemalan ID card for Franco, correspondence
to and from Guatemala in the name of her parents, and receipts showing
money transfers to her mother in Guatemala, the U.S. attorney's office
said in a news release.
Authorities earlier said Franco is in the United States illegally. She is allegedly not licensed to drive in Minnesota.
Franco
was charged with two counts of aggravated identity theft and two counts
of false representation of a Social Security number. Prosecutors filed
the same federal charges against Franco's live-in boyfriend, Francisco
Sangabriel-Mendoza, 29, who prosecutors say was the registered owner of
the van. He has not been arrested, and authorities are seeking him.
He
is accused of using the Social Security number of a Puerto Rican man to
get work at two Minnesota companies. An ICE affidavit alleges he is a
Mexican in the U.S. illegally.
Both Franco and Sangabriel-Mendoza
face maximum potential penalties of five years in prison on each false
representation count and two years on each identity theft count. Each
of the vehicular homicide charges Franco faces carries a maximum
10-year sentence.
another one searching for that American Dream?????
Load 'em up, ship 'em out!!!
