Former Garden City DMV supervisor Kanaisha Middleton gets a year in jail for running commercial drivers' license test cheating ring

A former Garden City Department of Motor Vehicles supervisor who ran a commercial driver’s license test cheating ring quarreled with a Nassau County judge on Wednesday and complained that she was being treated unfairly before she was sentenced to one year in the county jail.

Kanaisha Middleton, 34, and her sister, Jamie Middleton, 35, who sometimes disguised herself to look like a man, charged commercial license applicants between $1,500 and $3,000 to have a surrogate take the test for them.

Kanaisha Middleton, who prosecutors said directed and facilitated the scam from inside the DMV, pleaded guilty in May to two felony counts of corrupting the government, impairing the integrity of a government licensing exam and a misdemeanor count of official misconduct.

Jamie Middleton, who sometimes wore a beard and mustache as she sat for the test, also pleaded guilty in May and was sentenced in July to six months in jail for her role and five years probation.

It was Jamie Middleton’s masculine disguise that raised the suspicion of another DMV supervisor who tipped off the New York State Inspector General’s office.

Under the scam, prosecutors said, between March 2023 and September 2023, Jaime Middleton would go into the Garden City branch with the applicant’s ID, which would be verified by a DMV worker, and was then assigned a computer station to take the exam.

The fraud was so blatant that on May 23, 2023, Jaime Middleton took two exams within five minutes of each other wearing the same disguise, prosecutors said.

In all, she took nine exams over the seven month period, for seven applicants, authorities said.

In October 2025, a Nassau County grand jury indicted seven people, including the Middleton sisters, for corrupting the commercial driver’s license test-taking process.

Aside from the Middletons, all but one of the defendants have pleaded guilty and have been sentenced to three to five years probation.

DMV staffer Tawanna Whitfield, who was charged with 51 counts of falsifying business records, tampering with public records and other charges, is scheduled to be sentenced in November.

Before the hearing began on Wednesday, Kanaisha Middleton told her attorney, Karen Johnston, "I’m the victim. In this whole case, I’m the victim."

She reiterated the claim to the judge, arguing that she had not been able to look at the evidence against her in violation of her constitutional rights.

Kanaisha Middleton was offered the same plea deal as her sister, Supreme Court Justice Robert Schwartz said, but she refused because she did not want to serve probation.

"During the course of this investigation, out of everyone on this indictment," she told the court. "I was treated different from everyone."

She asked the court to allow her to preserve her pilot’s license after her conviction so that she could continue to pursue a career in flying after she finishes her jail term.

"I just want to fly. I don’t want to make trouble," she said. "I only ask that i have second chance at life and go on with my pilot training."

The judge asked her if she wanted to withdraw her plea and go to trial, but she declined.

Schwartz said that he had treated her differently from other defendants in the case because she held a higher position of authority.

"I hold you to a higher standard. You’re a public servant, you owe a duty to the public," he said.

He said that potentially putting unqualified commercial drivers on the road created a safety hazard.

"You put your own financial interest ahead of the safety of the public," Schwartz said. "That’s a serious breach of your position and of the public trust, that’s a serious crime and deserves a serious punishment."