State worker sentenced for issuing fake IDs

SEATTLE – A former state Department of Licensing worker has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for producing at least 80 fake identifications, which she sold for $100 to $150.

Peggy Lee Kendrix, 48, told the court through her lawyer that she felt “entirely remorseful and foolish,” but U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik said the crime was so frightening he had no choice but to sentence her to the top of the 12- to 18-month guideline range.

“This is about the most dangerous kind of fake ID we can have out there,” Lasnik said Friday.

Kendrix started working in a West Seattle licensing branch, processing driver’s license applications and renewals, in June 2001. She began issuing the fake IDs in early 2004, until a tip to law enforcement revealed her practices and she was arrested last May. She pleaded guilty in June.

She confessed after she was caught, but claimed she had only been helping out friends of her nephew who couldn’t obtain licenses because they could not read or were wanted by police. She first denied accepting payment, but later admitted it and said her judgment had been clouded by pain from arthritis and an ensuing dependency on marijuana.

Investigators have been combing through the licenses issued by Kendrix, looking for any that appear suspect, and state and federal prosecutions have been started against 40 people who purchased them.

Kendrix was ordered to pay $42,000 in restitution, the amount of loss prosecutors said they can prove thus far.