July 9, 2020
By: Staff Report
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – U.S. District Judge Marcia Morales Howard today sentenced Brandi Nicole Fletcher (25, Jacksonville) to four years and nine months in federal prison for perjury and aggravated identity theft in connection with obtaining a fraudulent passport. Fletcher had pleaded guilty on March 20, 2020.
According to court documents, Fletcher was in possession of multiple pieces of personal identification information, including social security cards, birth certificates, and driver licenses, that belonged to real people. On February 7, 2019, Fletcher traveled to a Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (“DHSMV”) location, where she presented identification documents belonging to a person with the initials A.I.N.D., representing herself to be A.I.N.D. The same day, Fletcher was issued a Florida identification card in the identity of A.I.N.D. Fletcher then traveled to a Passport Acceptance Facility located in Jacksonville and applied for a passport in the identity of A.I.N.D., which was issued the following day. In applying for the passport, Fletcher certified, under penalty of perjury, that she had not made false statements in the application. In May and June 2019, Fletcher then used the passport to travel internationally from the United States to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, in order to obtain plastic surgery.
On July 12, 2019, Fletcher again traveled to the DHSMV, where she provided identification documents belonging to a person with the initials K.N.P. The same day, Fletcher was issued a Florida identification card in the identity of K.N.P. Approximately two hours later, Fletcher testified in federal court as a potential third-party custodian for an individual facing revocation of his supervised release. Fletcher was sworn in as a witness, thereafter stated under oath, that she was K.N.P., and that she had no criminal record. That testimony was false. At the conclusion of the hearing, the other individual was released on bond into K.N.P.’s custody.
On August 5, 2019, Fletcher was arrested in South Carolina for possession of stolen property. Fletcher’s vehicle was searched and found to contain the passport that Fletcher had obtained using the A.I.N.D. identity and multiple pieces of identification documents for multiple other individuals. Fletcher also possessed court-issued monitoring equipment that was issued to her in her role as third-party custodian of the other individual.
Upon being interviewed by law enforcement, Fletcher admitted that she was aware of an outstanding warrant for her arrest, and did not believe she would be allowed to leave the country using her own identity. Fletcher also admitted that she did not think the other individual would be released into her custody if she had used her true identity to testify in federal court.
A search of DHSMV databases revealed that Fletcher had obtained Florida drivers licenses and identification cards using four identities that did not belong to her.
This case was investigated by the U.S. Marshals Service and the Diplomatic Security Service. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Laura Cofer Taylor.
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