INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — A former clerk at the Indian River County Tax Collector’s Office has been arrested, accused of issuing at least three false identification cards for a man she said she was involved with, his father, and the man’s co-worker.
The clerk, identified as Brandi Colton, 37, faces three felony counts of unlawful issuance of driver’s license/identification card. She has since been released from the county jail on $2,500 bond. She is expected in court in July.
According to the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office, a concerned citizen notified the Tax Collector’s Office of one person having a fraudulent ID, which prompted an investigation by both the Tax Collector’s Office and the Sheriff’s Office.
During the course of the investigation, authorities determined that Colton issued three fraudulent cards in September 2013. She was fired from the Tax Collector’s Office earlier this year for unrelated reasons.
According to the Sheriff’s Office, Colton issued a fraudulent driver’s license to one man identified as being in a relationship with her and his father, both of whom were ineligible for licenses in the State of Florida due to their licenses being expired and suspended out of New Jersey.
Colton eventually told investigators that David Miller essentially “sweet talked” her into issuing him a driver’s license after he “pestered” her for several weeks.
After Miller received a license, he arranged for his father, Joseph Miller, to also get a new license through Colton, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
The third fraudulent card, authorities said, was issued to 18-year-old Izzat Mohammed Khatib, with his older brother’s name and birth date. Khatib was a co-worker of the younger Miller at the time the cards were issued.
That ID card was meant to allow the underaged Khatib access into night clubs, according to the arrest affidavits.
It was Khatib’s fake ID that sparked the call to the Tax Collector’s Office and set off the investigation, the Sheriff’s Office said.
Both Millers and Khatib were arrested and each face a misdemeanor charge of obtaining a driver’s license or ID card by fraud. All three have been released from the county jail on bond.
Bond for both Millers was set at $5,000 each while Khatib’s bond amount was $2,500.
