A former New York State Department of Motor Vehicles supervisor who ran a commercial driver's licence (CDL) exam cheating ring out of the Garden City DMV office has been sentenced to one year in jail. Kanaisha Middleton, 34, was sentenced on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, according to the Nassau County District Attorney's Office, after pleading guilty in May to corrupting the government, impairing the integrity of a licensing examination and official misconduct.
Prosecutors say Middleton used her supervisor's position between March and September 2023 to bypass the CDL knowledge exams altogether: she directed her own sister to walk into the Garden City testing room in disguises and sit the exams in place of applicants, and she processed permits for applicants who never showed up at all. The sentence closes the main case in a 51-count indictment that charged seven people — four DMV insiders and three CDL applicants — in October 2025.
How the disguise scheme worked
According to Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly's office, Middleton directed her sister, Jamie Middleton, 36, to approach DMV employees dressed in various disguises in order to pose as different CDL applicants and take the exam in their place. “Jamie Middleton was dressed in baggy clothing, face masks, construction jackets and fake facial hair when she approached DMV employees to gain access to the testing room,” the District Attorney's office said.
Staff let her into the testing room even though her appearance did not match the identification and DMV records of the applicants she was impersonating, prosecutors said. In the instance prosecutors highlighted, on May 23, 2023, Jamie Middleton took exams for two applicants — Rene Sarduy, an employee of the Town of Hempstead Department of Highways, and Omesh Mohan — less than five minutes apart and wearing the exact same clothing. Mohan and Sarduy then went to different DMV locations, in Springfield Gardens and Bethpage, in the following days to provide their paperwork and obtain their interim permits.
One applicant did get all the way to a full licence. James Nurse, a Town of Hempstead Sanitation Department employee, received an interim permit at the Massapequa DMV on August 16, 2023, after Jamie Middleton took his exam two days earlier in Garden City. He was issued a full CDL in September 2023 — prosecutors say he used the illegally obtained licence to operate recycling trucks for the town. Six of the seven applicants were ultimately not issued full CDLs, and Mohan failed the required road test, prosecutors said.
Every defendant pleaded guilty
No one in the ring went to trial. Kanaisha Middleton pleaded guilty on May 4, 2026, to corrupting the government in the fourth degree, a class E felony; impairing the integrity of a licensing examination, a class D felony; and official misconduct, a class A misdemeanour. Her sister Jamie pleaded guilty the same day to corrupting the government and eight counts of impairing the integrity of a licensing examination, and was sentenced on July 7 to five months in jail and five years of probation.
DMV representative Satoya Mitchell, 35, pleaded guilty to impairing the integrity of a licensing examination, first-degree tampering with public records and official misconduct, and was sentenced on April 17 to four years of probation. Applicants Nurse, 43, Sarduy, 45, and Mohan, 43, each pleaded guilty to second-degree falsifying business records and received three years of probation. The last defendant, DMV representative Tawanna Whitfield, 36, pleaded guilty on January 22 and is scheduled to be sentenced on November 23, 2026.
“Kanaisha Middleton used her government position to corrupt and exploit DMV systems and manipulate a process meant to ensure those permitted to drive commercial vehicles on New York State roadways have the knowledge and abilities to do so safely. She enlisted the help of her sister and several other DMV employees in a masquerade of harebrained disguises to conceal a half-baked scheme putting money in their pockets and untested drivers on the roads with permits they never earned.”
New York State Inspector General Lucy Lang, whose office helped uncover the scheme, said: “New Yorkers have every right to expect that those entrusted with keeping our roads safe are upholding the very rules they are charged with enforcing. By exploiting her position to help others circumvent critical safety laws, this defendant betrayed the public's trust and undermined the integrity of the system.”
How the scheme was uncovered
The investigation began inside the Garden City office itself, after a DMV supervisor reported suspicions that employees were processing CDL permit applications for people who had not appeared to take the required examinations, prosecutors said. The Nassau County District Attorney's Public Corruption Bureau prosecuted the case, with assistance from the New York State Inspector General's Office and the Department of Motor Vehicles.
Why it matters for working truck drivers
The CDL knowledge exam exists so that everyone licensed to drive a heavy truck or bus has first shown they understand the rules of the road, load safety and vehicle inspection. A permit bought through a cheating ring puts an untested driver beside every other road user — and it undercuts the thousands of drivers, including many Punjabi and South Asian immigrant drivers in the New York–New Jersey freight corridor, who study, pay and pass the same exams honestly. Cases like this are also why licensing agencies have been tightening identity checks at test centres, which legitimate applicants now experience as extra scrutiny and delay.
What happens next
Middleton now serves her one-year jail sentence. The only remaining court date in the case is the sentencing of Tawanna Whitfield on November 23, 2026. All seven defendants were convicted through guilty pleas, so there is no trial left in the Garden City case — but the licences and permits touched by the scheme remain a live issue for the DMV, which has not said in these reports how many credentials issued in the period were reviewed or revoked.