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Former Coast Guard Employees Plead Guilty in a Louisiana Court in Test-Fixing Case

Published March 1, 2022

Two former Coast Guard employees, along with several others, have pleaded guilty or been convicted for their roles in a text-fixing scheme.

Louisiana – U.S. Attorney Duane A. Evans announced the guilty pleas of two former U.S. Coast Guard employees in a test score-fixing scheme. U.S. Attorney Evans also announced additional guilty pleas and sentencing of several other defendants in this matter.

Dorothy Smith and Beverly McCrary pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States before the Honorable Barry W. Ashe on February 24, 2022. Each defendant faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine, three years of supervised release, and a $100 mandatory special assessment fee. Each defendant’s sentencing date is set for April 14, 2022.

Smith and McCrary worked as credentialing specialists at a Coast Guard examination center in Mandeville, Louisiana. Smith’s position allowed her to enter exam results for merchant mariners in order to obtain licenses to serve in various positions on ships. The exams assessed mariners’ knowledge and training in order for them to operate safely under the authority of their licenses.

Smith admitted accepting bribes to fix exam scores when she pleaded guilty. While Smith would occasionally interact directly with credential applicants (for example, by soliciting bribes from them at the exam center), she mostly relied on intermediaries. Smith typically avoided having any contact with the mariners to whom she sold scores by using intermediaries. Mariners who take part in the scheme usually do not even show up for the exams. Smith would create Coast Guard records and data entries to give the impression to the Coast Guard that the mariners had appeared and been tested. Smith would invent passing scores for each of the examination’s modules and enter them into a Coast Guard computer system. Smith would then send emails to a Coast Guard office falsely stating that the mariners had passed the examinations and should receive the desired endorsements.

McCrary pleaded guilty to being one of Smith’s scheme’s intermediaries. McCrary admitted that she acted as an intermediary while working at the exam center and that she continued to participate in the scheme after her retirement in 2015. McCrary would collect money and information about the desired endorsements, then give Smith the information and a portion of the money. McCrary almost always demanded cash upfront but would accept non-monetary items of value on occasion. McCrary, for example, accepted coolers of fresh caught shrimp from one mariner in exchange for arranging false test scores.

To reduce the likelihood of the scheme being discovered, McCrary instructed mariners not to contact the exam center about their credential applications, not to work on vessels on days when they were supposed to be testing, and to use code words when discussing the scheme over the phone.

While she was on duty at the exam center, McCrary recruited some of the mariners. When mariners came to the exam center, for example, to address issues with their credential applications, McCrary would strike up a conversation with them and proceed to solicit them to participate in the scheme. In the scheme, McCrary also created her own network of intermediaries beneath her. Alexis Bell, Micheal Wooten, and Sharron Robinson were among the intermediaries who pleaded guilty and admitted to assisting McCrary in arranging false scores for a total of 31 mariners, including themselves.

Smith and McCrary admitted to participating in the scheme from around April 2012 to May 2019 and causing more than 50 mariners to receive false scores, with some mariners receiving false scores multiple times. Each falsely reported examination resulted in the issuance of an unearned license, nearly all of which were officer-level. Officer-level licenses cover the most important positions on ships, including master, chief mate, and chief engineer.

Earlier this year, Judge Ashe sentenced two mariners who had pleaded guilty to acting as McCrary’s intermediaries: Micheal Wooten was sentenced to 54 months in prison on January 7, 2022, and Alexis Bell was sentenced to 42 months on February 3, 2022. Wooten and Bell were also sentenced to one year of supervised release following their prison sentences.

Judge Ashe sentenced two of the mariners who obtained fraudulent licenses through scores entered by Smith on January 20, 2022. Fredrick Nettles received a six-month prison sentence, one year of supervised release, and 100 hours of community service. Stinson Payne received a one-year probation sentence and 100 hours of community service.

Seven of the eight defendants charged in a separate indictment pleaded guilty before the Honorable Eldon E. Fallon to obtaining unearned endorsements through false scores entered by Smith: Ransford Ackah, Odell Griggs, and Devin Hebert pleaded guilty on January 13, 2022; Nathaniel Dominick, Raynel Lewis, and Maurice Palmer pleaded guilty on February 3, 2022; and  Adrian Mack pleaded guilty on February 10, 2022. The maximum penalties for each defendant are five years’ imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, three years of supervised release, and a $100 mandatory special assessment fee.

This case is being investigated by the Coast Guard Investigative Service. Assistant U.S. Attorney Chandra Menon is in charge of the prosecution.

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