Here Comes the Bride. Again, and Again . . .
By SUSAN SAULNY The New York Times
In a era when divorce and remarriage are commonplace, it might not be surprising for a city clerk to see some of the same names pop up on applications for marriage licenses from time to time.
But it did strike the city clerk's office as highly unusual when it learned this year that one Manhattan woman had applied for 27 marriage licenses from 1984 to 2002 and that at least a dozen others had seemingly married in numbers that were highly suspicious.
These "career brides," as one city official called them, were not marrying for love, according to the Manhattan district attorney's office, which announced yesterday that four women had been arrested and two more were being sought on felony charges punishable by up to four years in prison. The authorities said they believed that the women had offered to marry illegal immigrants for a fee, usually about $1,000. Officials said the women who had applied for the licenses sometimes actually went through with marriage ceremonies, but sometimes they did not.
A marriage would entitle the men to green cards and other benefits, including Social Security (news - web sites) and unemployment insurance, prosecutors said. The men involved in the scheme came from various countries, including Pakistan, India, Peru, Ecuador, Nigeria and the Dominican Republic, according to court papers.
Robert M. Morgenthau, the Manhattan district attorney, began his investigation after the city clerk's office raised suspicions. He said he planned to give the information to the F.B.I.-N.Y.P.D. Joint Terrorist Task Force, the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services and various United States attorneys.
Officials said the possibilities for abuse are obvious and seemingly endless, given that municipal and county databases on marriage in New York State are not linked, nor are computerized records connected state to state.
"This opens the door to a lot of other fraud and expense for the U.S. taxpayer," Mr. Morgenthau said at a news conference.
Victor L. Robles, the city clerk who reported the multiple marriages to Mr. Morgenthau in January, still seemed stunned by his findings. "I wanted to know how that's possible in the city of New York," he said yesterday in a telephone interview.
In order to marry in New York City, prospective brides and grooms must complete an affidavit that requires information about previous marriages. The application is then filed with the city clerk's office. Only once did any of the women arrested yesterday acknowledge a previous marriage on the application.
Mr. Robles, a former city councilman who took over the city clerk's office in 2001, said he was surprised when he heard about a woman who had filed for numerous marriage licenses within a short period of time.
He then learned that his office was doing only one-year computer searches on applicants.
"Somebody who got married this year could go to the Bronx next year and get married again," and not be detected, he said.
Mr. Robles also learned that records were not immediately shared among boroughs or counties.
"I said, `From now on, every time we catch somebody, we'll forward it to the district attorney's office in the respective counties,' " he said.
Since taking office, Mr. Robles, who has 54 deputies in the five boroughs, has instituted a records search that goes back 10 years, and he is lobbying for all the state's marital records to be connected.
"I hope that this whole scandal will force the city and the state to link systems so that I can punch in a name and know if someone already applied for a license," he said.
This question remains: At what point does one who often says "I do" become suspicious? After three weddings? Five? Ten?
"We have to look very closely," Mr. Robles said, adding that he had hired a lawyer whose role it is to cross-check information on people with multiple marriages. The office also demands to see divorce decrees before issuing new marriage licenses, he said.
The women who were charged yesterday Dezerrie Cortes, 40, who had applied for 27 licenses; Maria Davis, 26; Monique Figueroa, 26; and Chera Larkins, 32 worked independently of each other, officials said, and had applied for licenses to marry a total of 43 men. The charges included perjury and offering false documents to officials. There was no pattern to the schemes or identifiable ringleader, prosecutors said.
None of the four women could be reached for comment yesterday.
Ms. Cortes is being held at Rikers Island in $25,000 bail. Ms. Davis was released on her own recognizance, and Ms. Figueroa was expected in Manhattan Criminal Court for arraignment last night. Officials said Ms. Larkins had been arrested, but they did not know her whereabouts.
Ms. Davis and Ms. Cortes live in the same Lexington Avenue apartment building, a high-rise near East 121st Street.
"She goes to work and takes her son to school every day mother kinds of things," a neighbor, Karen Williams, 29, said of Ms. Cortes.
In explaining how the prospective grooms found their brides, Dan Castleman, the chief of investigations in the Manhattan district attorney's office, said: "Oftentimes it was word of mouth in the neighborhood. Some of the women made it known they were available for a price."
Others used go-betweens to arrange unions, he said, adding that most who actually married after receiving the licenses never bothered to file for divorce before applying for new licenses.
In another case, an employee in the city clerk's office is being sought on accusations that he accepted a bribe to change a bride's name in the computer system. In that case, prosecutors said, the woman scheduled to appear at the clerk's office for a marriage ceremony did not show up, and the would-be groom wanted her name removed from the record so another woman could be substituted and the wedding could go on that day.
Mr. Morgenthau said an investigation into about a dozen other repeat brides and their grooms was continuing. If the government finds that a green card application is based on a fraudulent marriage, the applicant could be immediately deported.
"We wanted to put a stop to this now," Mr. Morgenthau said. Later, he added, "But the investigation still has a ways to go."
