November 22, 1999

AGENT OF FLUSHING TRUCK DRIVING SCHOOL AND ANOTHER MAN ARRESTED FOR SELLING ANSWERS TO DRIVERS EXAMS ENCODED ON WATCH BANDS. TWO DOZEN WATCHES SEIZED

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown joined by Richard E. Jackson, Commissioner of the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), announced today the arrest of an authorized agent of a Flushing truck driving school and another man on charges of selling the answers to various New York State commercial drivers license examinations to members of the general public. The test answers were encoded on wrist watches that the defendant allegedly obtained from a second man.

District Attorney Brown said, "It is charged that these defendants made it possible for individuals who wanted to operate trucks and other heavy equipment, to do so without knowing the rules of the road or having the required skills. By helping unqualified people obtain commercial operators licenses, the defendants not only tried to cheat New York State, they placed countless other motorists, passengers and pedestrians in danger."

Commissioner Jackson said, "These arrests underline our determination to allow only qualified, properly trained applicants to become licensed drivers. This is especially true where it concerns heavy trucks, buses and other vehicles that require commercial driver licenses."

District Attorney Brown identified the defendants as Baljit S. Gill, 26, of 42-45 Saull Street, Flushing, N.Y. 11355 and Sajjad Muhammad, 31, of 6 Nutmeg Drive, Mt. Holly, N.Y. The defendant Gill is an authorized agent of Sunny's Truck Driving School, Inc. which is located at 41-26 College Point Boulevard, Flushing. The watches were allegedly supplied to the defendant Gill by the defendant Muhammad, who allegedly encoded them. Both defendants are charged with falsifying business records, offering a false instrument for filing, obstructing governmental administration, tampering with public records and violations of the New York State Vehicle and Traffic Law. They face up to seven years in prison if convicted of the charges.

According to the charges, on November 13, 1999 the defendant Gill rented three watches for $800 to two Queens men who sought to take a commercial drivers license exam. The watches were allegedly encoded with a pattern of dots that signified the correct answer to each of the 50 multiple choice questions that appear on the commercial drivers license examinations. One dot stood for the letter A indicating that the test taker should check answer A on the exam. Two dots stood for answer B and so on. It is alleged that the defendant, in assisting the test takers to complete the exams, caused false statements to be entered into the records on the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles.

District Attorney Brown said that the investigation began when employees of DMV facilities in Springfield Gardens, College Point and Jamaica noticed that dozens of test takers were arriving at the facilities wearing watch bands decorated with dots. Employees began seizing the watches and questioning the test takers. Two dozen watches were seized during the investigation. In addition, investigators were informed about an advertisement in a weekly Punjabi language newspaper, Charhid Kala, advertising the school's services including "help" on the New York State commercial drivers license examinations.

The investigation and search warrant leading to the arrests was conducted by Lt. Albert Velardi of District Attorney Brown's Detective Bureau which is under the command of Chief Edward T. Brady and Deputy Chief Lawrence J. Festa and Senior Investigators Gerard Harrison and Peter Savory and Investigator Mark Beharry of the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Assistant District Attorney Rosemary Buccheri of the District Attorney's Economic Crimes Bureau which is under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Michael J. Mansfield and the overall supervision of Assistant District Attorney Robert D. Alexander is in charge of the case.

It should be noted that an arrest is merely an accusation and that a defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.

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