Former Melrose firefighter who stole lifeless teen’s identification sentenced to jail

Crime

After Truong Nguyen’s authorized standing was revoked, he used the alternate identification to use for authorized paperwork and attend the Massachusetts Firefighting Academy.

A Vietnamese man who had been dwelling in Braintree was sentenced Wednesday to 25 months in federal jail for stealing the identification of a deceased teenager and utilizing it to work as a paramedic and firefighter. 

Prosecutors detailed how Truong Nguyen, 50, evaded deportation and accountability for different alleged crimes for the higher a part of twenty years, partially by utilizing the stolen identification. Nguyen labored for the Melrose Fireplace Division when he was arrested in 2024. Early this 12 months he pleaded responsible to passport fraud and aggravated identification theft. He’s topic to deportation upon completion of the sentence.

He entered the US from Vietnam in 1979 as a Authorized Everlasting Resident, however Nguyen was convicted of second-degree housebreaking in 1991 and his authorized standing was revoked in 1995. He was ordered deported, however stayed within the nation. In 2010, Nguyen was arrested and charged with embezzlement and larceny after allegedly stealing over $46,000 from the Norwell Firefighters Union whereas working as an officer of the union, in keeping with US Lawyer Leah Foley’s workplace. 

Officers confirmed that Nguyen then started utilizing the identification of a 13-year-old who died in Boston in 2002. He obtained and used a number of government-issued identification paperwork within the late teen’s title. This included purposes for Massachusetts driver’s licenses in 2018, 2019, and 2023, in addition to for a Social Safety card in 2018, Foley’s workplace stated. 

Nguyen was the topic of an RMV fraud listening to in 2018 whereas utilizing the identification of the sufferer. Facial recognition decided that he had been issued two driver’s licenses beneath separate identities: his personal title and the identification of the late teen. Nguyen claimed on the fraud listening to that the teenager’s identification was his true identification and introduced a Social Safety card and a beginning certificates issued beneath the sufferer’s title. The RMV closed the case after the listening to, believing that the sufferer’s title was Nguyen’s true identification, Foley’s workplace stated. 

He used the identification to acquire an EMT-Fundamental certification in 2021 and an EMT-Paramedic certification in 2023. Nguyen later utilized for jobs as a paramedic utilizing the stolen identification, prosecutors stated. 

Nguyen used the identification to attend the Massachusetts Firefighting Academy from November 2023 to January 2024. He graduated, and commenced working on the Melrose Fireplace Division beneath the title till he was arrested final 12 months. 

Regulation enforcement started investigating Nguyen after he submitted a passport software at a publish workplace in Weymouth in March 2023 utilizing the identification of the late teen. Nguyen supplied the sufferer’s title, date of beginning, and Social Safety quantity, alongside a replica of their US beginning certificates and a Massachusetts driver’s license with the sufferer’s data. 

The Boston Passport Company verified a demise document for the teenager whose identification Nguyen stole. In June 2023, the company despatched federal regulation enforcement the passport software and the supporting paperwork supplied by Nguyen. Officers confirmed that the paperwork matched these of the lifeless teen. Nguyen was denied the passport. 

“This defendant has illegally resided within the Unites States for over 30 years, assuming false identities to dodge deportation ensuing from a 1991 felony conviction,” Foley stated in an announcement. “For the final six years, Mr. Nguyen exploited the identification of a deceased baby to keep away from accountability for a litany of prison offenses, together with trying to acquire a U.S. passport and falsifying data to turn into a firefighter.”