Local News in Brief : 2 at Traffic School Charged

A husband and wife who work at a Burbank traffic school have been charged with attempted forgery after giving an undercover state Department of Motor Vehicles investigator a certificate for a course she did not complete, authorities said Thursday.

Jon Downey, 44, and his wife, Roberta, 39, of Burbank, were arrested Wednesday at the L.A. Delta Driving School in the 1800 block of Verdugo Avenue, said Bill Hall, a DMV senior special investigator. Each faces misdemeanor counts of attempted forgery and failure to perform a government duty, Hall said.

Hall said an undercover officer signed up to take a class from Jon Downey after the DMV received an anonymous call in early June from a woman who said Downey had given her a completion certificate without her attending an eight-hour traffic class.

The undercover officer had attended four hours of a traffic class June 15 when Jon Downey gave her a completion certificate and said she did not have to return for the second four hours, Hall said. He said Downey’s motivation for giving the bogus completion certificate was not financial.

Hall said Downey’s wife was also arrested because DMV officials found other completion certificates at the school that she had falsified.

Hall said an investigation is continuing. He noted that officials of L.A. Delta, based in downtown Los Angeles, were unaware of the Downey’s activities at the school and aided DMV officials in the investigation.