Opinion ID: 3155932
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Eric Gardner/ Jerald Law Passport

Text: On April 15, 2010, a man claiming to be Jerald Law (“Law”) went to the passport agency with Brown. Eric Gardner (“Gardner”) represented himself as Law and submitted his photo with the Gardner/Law application to Churchwell. Gardner gave Churchwell a “little scratch piece of paper” with a Texas driver’s license number written on it as proof of identification. Gardner also handed Churchwell an uncertified copy of his birth certificate. Churchwell proceeded to write the numbers from the torn piece of paper on the passport application in the section that required the driver’s license number and added information on the application that was not on the piece of paper. 5 Gardner also did not appear to know the answers to basic questions such as the name of his employer; instead, he looked to Brown for the appropriate responses. A passport specialist also assisting Gardner expressed concern to Churchwell about the Gardner/Law application because of Gardner’s lack of proper identification and missing information in his application. Churchwell told the specialist to obtain a DS–71 form, which is required from an identifying witness when the applicant does not have his primary identification. However, because Brown did not have valid identification, Brown could not serve as a witness. 6 5 Despite receiving no other information from Gardner, Churchwell (1) checked the box for “Other” in the Identifying Documents section to indicate what document was provided and wrote “STATE ID CARD,” (2) listed the expiration date on the application as “DOB 2012,” (3) wrote “SAME” in the space for the applicant’s name, and (4) wrote down “TX” as the “Place of Issue.” 6 Brown’s license was cut across the top, showing that it was invalid. 3 Case: 14-20351 Document: 00513277044 Page: 4 Date Filed: 11/18/2015 No. 14-20351 Churchwell nevertheless advised the specialist to accept the application and prepare it for will call, which would allow Gardner to accept it after it was prepared. When the specialist noted that Gardner’s application exhibited many of the same fraud indicators as an application she reviewed days prior for Churchwell, Churchwell stated that the earlier passports were not issued. 7 However, the passport specialist alleged that Churchwell’s statement was false because the prior applicant’s passport was already distributed to the applicant.