UNION CITY AND BEYOND – A former clerk at the Jersey City Motor Vehicle Agency pleaded guilty Friday to illegally selling N.J. digital driver’s licenses, according to a press release from Attorney General Jeffrey S. Chiesa’s office.
Union City resident and former Jersey City Motor Vehicle Commission clerk Sonia Noel, 48, pleaded guilty to second-degree conspiracy before Superior Court Judge Paul M. DePascale in Hudson County. In pleading guilty, she admitted that she entered false information into the MVC database in connection with sales of state driver’s licenses to two people who did not have the required six points of identification in 2008.
Under the plea agreement, the state will recommend that she be sentenced to four years in state prison. She will have to pay $3,000 in restitution and will be permanently barred from public employment in N.J. Noel is scheduled for sentencing on Sept. 7.
Noel’s 27-year-old daughter, Melody Noel, also from Union City was also a clerk at the agency. She pleaded guilty May 7 to a single count of third-degree tampering with public records or information and admitted that she assisted in processing the application for one of the driver’s licenses sold by her mother. She was sentenced Friday to two years of probation, 50 hours of community service, and a $1,000 fine. She will also be permanently barred from public employment in New Jersey.
One person has pleaded guilty to buying a license, and a fourth defendant faces charges of brokering the licenses.