Apr 23, 2008 9:12 pm US/Central
Woman Accused In Fatal Crash Indicted For Lying
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) ―
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Olga Franco, who is from Guatemala, is also charged with criminal vehicular homicide following the Feb. 19 bus crash, which killed four students from the Lakeview School District. (File)
Lyon County
The woman accused of causing a bus crash that killed four students in southwestern Minnesota was indicted Wednesday on charges that she used another woman's identification documents to get jobs.
Olga Marina Franco del Cid, 24, of Minneota was charged in U.S. District Court with two counts each of identify theft, false representation of a Social Security number and use of a false document for employment eligibility.
Franco's boyfriend, Francisco Sangabriel-Mendoza, 29, of Minneota, was also indicted Wednesday. He is also accused of using the identification of another person to get jobs. A warrant has been issued for his arrest.
Sangabriel-Mendoza and Franco lived together, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office, and Franco's attorney claimed in court earlier this week that Sangabriel-Mendoza was actually driving the van when it crashed into the school bus -- not Franco, as prosecutors allege.
According to the indictment, Franco used the fraudulent documents twice -- on May 13, 2007, and Jan. 14, 2008.
Franco allegedly used the Social Security number of a woman named Alianiss Nunez-Morales to obtain a state identification card and filled out I-9 forms -- on which she marked that she was a U.S. citizen -- at two Minnesota companies where she worked using Nunez-Morales' information.
Franco, who is from Guatemala, is also charged with criminal vehicular homicide following the Feb. 19 bus crash near Cottonwood, which killed four students from the Lakeview School District.
When she was arrested, Franco initially told police her name was Alianiss Nunez-Morales. Investigators later found Nunez-Morales in Connecticut and she told them her purse and identification documents had been stolen six months earlier while she had been living in Puerto Rico.
Sangabriel-Mendoza is from Mexico and was living in the U.S. illegally, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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