Former manager of Brockton RMV sentenced for falsely passing tests

BROCKTON, Mass. (WWLP) – The former manager at the Brockton RMV has been sentenced in a scheme to give permits and driver’s licenses to people who did not actually pass the appropriate tests.

According to the US Attorney’s Office, 44-year-old Mia Cox-Johnson was accused of accepting money as bribes to give customers passing scores on both driver’s licenses and CDL tests.

Cox-Johnson pled guilty back in March to extortion and conspiring to commit extortion.

Between December 2018 and October 2019, she conspired to take money in exchange for agreeing to give customers passing scores on the multiple-choice learner’s permit tests even if the person did not pass the test.

Customers were told by Cox-Johnson to request a paper test instead of taking the test on the computer. Then, she personally graded these customers’ paper tests and gave them passing scores.

On December 28th of 2018, Cox-Johnson accepted $1,000 in cash that was delivered from a friend from another person in exchange for a passing score for the person’s relative who had failed the passenger vehicle learner’s permit test six times when they were taking it in their native language. She then agreed to score the relative a passing grade on the permit test regardless of whether they had truly passed or not. Cox-Johnson did pass the relative’s test, which was taken on paper in English.

Then, on October 21, 2019, a customer came to the RMV and took three multiple-choice tests that they needed to pass in order to get a commercial learner’s permit, which is a prerequisite to taking the road test for a CDL. She accepted $200 in cash from a person to score the customer as having passed the tests even if they did not pass. The applicant failed one of the tests, but Cox-Johnson falsely gave the applicant a passing score.

Cox-Johnson was sentenced to four months in prison and one year of supervised release, with the first six months to be served under home confinement and a fine of $5,500.