JURY CONVICTS DEFENDANT IN OPERATION CROOKED HIGHWAY

Nashville, TN - November 2, 2006 – A federal jury convicted Teresa Jones, a former employee of the Tennessee Department of Safety, earlier today on bribery charges stemming out of Operation Crooked Highway announced United States Attorney Craig S. Morford and Special Agent in Charge My Harrison, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Memphis Division. The jury also convicted Jones on a charge of conspiring to commit bribery and a charge of making false statements to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Jones, who worked as a drivers’ license examiner at the TDOS station in Murfreesboro, Tennessee in 2004 and 2005, was convicted of taking bribes in exchange for helping customers of the Winchester Driving School obtain drivers’ licenses without meeting all of the requirements for doing so legitimately. Bryan Guess, formerly the owner and operator of the Winchester Driving School, had previously pled guilty to three public corruption charges related to bribes he paid to employees of TDOS in exchange for benefits they provided to Guess’s customers. After Teresa Jones left TDOS in March 2005, she went to work for Guess at the Winchester Driving School.

The jury also convicted Jones of making a false statement to Special Agents of the FBI. When Jones was arrested on January 25, 2006, she told the agents who arrested her that she had never sold one of the tests administered by TDOS. The evidence at trial established that Jones had in fact sold official TDOS tests for $2,500 in October 2005.

In announcing the conviction, United States Attorney Craig S. Morford said, “Public corruption is a top priority for the Department of Justice and for this office, particularly when it involves public employees with access to sensitive functions such as issuing drivers’ licenses. This conviction also highlights the importance of not making false statements to federal agents and interfering with the integrity of federal investigations.”

The bribery charge carries a maximum penalty of ten years in prison, and the conspiracy and false statement charges each carry maximum penalties of five years in prison. Federal District Court Judge Todd C. Campbell, who presided over the case, set a sentencing date of January 12, 2007 at 10:30 a.m.

Operation Crooked Highway has resulted in eight convictions to date and is a joint investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division, and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. The United States was represented at trial by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Bret Hester and Hilliard Hester.

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