Former manager of Brockton RMV admits to passing learner’s permit tests in exchange for money

BOSTON – A Brockton woman pleaded guilty yesterday to accepting money in exchange for agreeing to issue passing learner’s permit test scores to applicants regardless of whether they actually passed or not, at the Registry of Motor Vehicles in Brockton.

According to the Massachusetts Department of Justice, 43-year-old Mia Cox-Johnson pleaded guilty to two counts of extortion under color of official right and one count of conspiring to commit extortion. U.S. District Court Judge Denise J. Casper scheduled sentencing for July 20, 2023. Cox-Johnson was charged by an Information on March 2, 2023.

Cox-Johnson, a former manager of the RMV service center in Brockton, took money in exchange for agreeing to give passing scores on learner’s permit tests for both passenger vehicle driver’s licenses and Commercial Driver’s Licenses (CDLs). Between December 2018 and October 2019, Cox-Johnson conspired to take money in exchange for agreeing to give customers passing scores on their multiple-choice learner’s permit tests even if they did not pass. These customers were told to request a paper test instead of taking the test on the RMV computer. Cox-Johnson scored these customers’ paper tests.

On Dec. 28, 2018, Cox-Johnson accepted $1,000 in cash – delivered from a friend on behalf of another individual – in exchange for giving a passing score to the individual’s relative who had failed the passenger vehicle learner’s permit test six times when taking it in their native language. Cox-Johnson also agreed to score the relative as having passed the permit test regardless of whether they had actually passed. Cox-Johnson did, in fact, pass the relative’s test, which was taken on paper in English.

On Oct. 21, 2019, a customer came to the Brockton RMV and took three multiple-choice tests they needed to pass in order to get a commercial learner’s permit – a prerequisite to taking the road test for a CDL. Cox-Johnson accepted $200 in cash from an individual to score the customer as having passed the tests even if they did not actually pass. In fact, the applicant failed one of the tests, but Cox-Johnson scored the applicant as having passed all three tests.

The charges of extortion under color of official right and conspiracy to commit extortion each provide for a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutes which govern the determination of a sentence in a criminal case.

United States Attorney Rachael S. Rollins; Michael J. Krol, Acting Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in New England; and Christopher Scharf, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General, Northeast Region, made the announcement today. The investigation was conducted by Homeland Security Investigation’s Document and Benefit Fraud Task Force (DBFTF). Valuable assistance was provided by the Mattapoisett Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Christine Wichers and Adam Deitch of Rollins’s Public Corruption & Special Prosecutions Unit; Assistant U.S. Attorney Eugenia M. Carris, Deputy Chief of Rollins’ Public Corruption & Special Prosecutions Unit; and Assistant U.S. Attorney Mackenzie Duane of Rollins’ Major Crimes Unit are prosecuting the case.