Wife of Santa Paula Mayor Won’t Be Charged After DMV Probe

The wife of Santa Paula’s mayor will not be charged in connection with an alleged driver’s license scam uncovered by Department of Motor Vehicles officials, prosecutors said Friday.

A 25-year employee at the DMV office in Santa Paula, Rosemarie Mejia-Luna was accused by agency officials of selling driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants. But a six-month investigation by the DMV was inconclusive, said Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. Jeffrey Bennett.

Acknowledging there was insufficient evidence for charges against the drive-test examiner, Bennett said the case was returned to the DMV. He would not elaborate on the investigation.

A DMV spokesman declined comment on the district attorney’s decision.

Mejia-Luna has denied any wrongdoing. On Friday, her husband, Mayor Ray Luna, said he and his wife “have moved on from that.”

“We knew all along she had done nothing wrong,” he said. “She’s never done anything unethical here or anywhere else.”

In February, investigators searched the Luna home to bolster their case. Mejia-Luna was suspected in a conspiracy that involved peddling driver’s licenses for $1,000 to $1,800 each, according to court documents. At least six times in 1999 and 2000, illegal immigrants from Mexico were granted licenses after applying with phony documents at various Southern California DMV offices and passing the driving test in Santa Paula.

The alleged payoffs to Mejia-Luna, the drive-test examiner in all six cases, included $200 to $300 for each phony license, the documents said.

Affidavits used to obtain search warrants served at Mejia-Luna’s home and DMV workstation showed that two applicants for licenses told DMV investigator Elva R. Godoy in December 2000 that they purchased their licenses from two people identified as Leticia Martinez and Carlos Salva. The documents did not state where Martinez and Salva were based.

According to the affidavits, Martinez and Salva arranged for applicants to apply for licenses and take the written test at DMV offices in Bakersfield, Hollywood and San Clemente using fake birth certificates.

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Times staff writer Steve Chawkins contributed to this report.