A string of lies to city, state and federal authorities placed Dolores Rodriguez LaFlamme in a sensitive job at the state Division of Motor Vehicles, through which she allegedly helped drug dealers and illegal immigrants get the valid licenses they needed to hide their identities.

She lied first to the city, when she obtained a license to marry a convicted heroin dealer solely to stay in the country.

She lied to the state by checking off “U.S. citizen” on her DMV job application.

She lied to federal Homeland Security officials when she told them her marriage was real.

Three years ago at a hearing that led to a deportation order, a federal immigration judge and a government prosecutor saw the potential for a breach of trust at her state job.

Since she’d already shown a propensity to lie to federal authorities, the prosecutor asked, what would stop her from taking bribes from people who wanted motor vehicle titles?

LaFlamme said, “I won’t take it. I won’t accept the bribe.”

Beverly E. Najarian, the director of the state Department of Administration, said that neither her department nor the DMV were told anything by federal officials about LaFlamme’s questionable immigration status — much less that it had been going on for years.

Did that bother her? “Quite frankly, it does.”

When asked why Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) never contacted the state, spokeswoman Paula Grenier said she could not talk about specific cases.

LaFlamme, 40, of 9 Hall St., Providence, and fellow registry clerk Soraya Santiago, 42, of 63 Samuel Ave., Pawtucket, are part of an expanding investigation into what Rhode Island State Police are calling a ring of opportunity at the DMV. The two registry clerks are accused of working with two “middlemen” to provide drivers’ licenses to dozens of people using fraudulent identities. Some are illegal immigrants and convicted drug dealers.

LaFlamme, Santiago, one of the alleged middlemen and 10 people who obtained licenses have been charged, but the state police are searching for 19 others. That investigation now includes the FBI, U.S. Marshals, and state police in New York, Massachusetts and Florida.

COURT RECORDS filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston tell the story of LaFlamme’s trail through the legal system that ultimately ended in February with a final order that she be deported to the Dominican Republic.

According to the records:

LaFlamme came legally to the United States Feb. 26, 1996, as Dolores Michel on a six-month visitor’s visa. It expired that August.

Four months later, on Dec. 16, 1996, she married Wilson Rodriguez in a civil ceremony in Providence Municipal Court.

LaFlamme would later admit to an immigration judge that the sham marriage was arranged through a friend at work, and that Wilson Rodriguez was the friend’s brother.

In 1997, LaFlamme applied for a work authorization visa, and sought permanent residency.

Meanwhile, LaFlamme would later tell the judge that in 1997 she met Daniel LaFlamme, a U.S. citizen who has worked for the state as a properties manager for the Bristol Veteran’s Home since 2004. She said they moved in together and had a child in 1998.

But in 2000, LaFlamme used the sham marriage to try to get a green card that would give her legal permanent residence. On April 10, 2000, she and Wilson Rodriguez went to the immigration office in Providence, then known as the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Rodriguez was petitioning for LaFlamme as an “alien relative,” a status that would allow her to apply for a green card. In separate interviews meant to test the authenticity of the marriage, they swore to tell the truth.

Both lied.

LaFlamme said her “husband” had never been arrested since she’d married him, although he had just completed a four-month prison term for dealing heroin.

Rodriguez told the hearing officer that LaFlamme had one child, who lived with them. He said he did not know the child’s name. LaFlamme said she had no children.

The hearing officer confronted Rodriguez. How could he not know the name of a child who had lived with him since birth?

Rodriguez then admitted he did not live with LaFlamme, but rather with his brother in Providence.

Meanwhile, LaFlamme gave a phony address.

It took until Aug. 2, 2002, before immigration issued a decision: Petition Denied.

That same day, immigration authorities informed LaFlamme that she had overstayed her visa because of the marriage fraud and would face deportation proceedings.

Somehow, LaFlamme had already ended up with a federal work-authorization document.

LAFLAMME CONTINUED working at the Registry in Pawtucket. She greeted the public at the front desk and took their information. She handled license applications and titles. She immersed herself in civic life, volunteerism and politics. On Nov. 19, 2004, LaFlamme tried once again for legal status, based on her marriage in 2003 to Daniel LaFlamme.

She admitted to her earlier sham marriage, but asked Judge Matthew D’Angelo for “a second chance.”

“I’m a good mother,” she told him. “I work hard. I have a clean work record.” Deporting her to the Dominican Republic would be “devastating,” she said. Daniel LaFlamme said it would ruin his life.

But that didn’t wash.

At that hearing, D’Angelo and prosecutor Robert K. Bingham underscored LaFlamme’s duplicity.

“So at the same time you were issuing titles for motor vehicles in Rhode Island, you were lying to the immigration Officer in Rhode Island about your fraudulent marriage, correct?” D’Angelo asked.

Yes, she said.

“Does your supervisor know that you had engaged in this fraud with the Department of Homeland Security?”

No, she said.

“Does anyone know this at work?”

“No.”

Bingham posed the bribery question: Would she take money in exchange for a title?

Never, she said.

D’Angelo gave his decision.

No waiver for the sham marriage. No green card. He also declined to let LaFlamme return to the Dominican Republic voluntarily, which could have enabled her to return legally to the United States in several years.

Instead, he ordered her deported. And a deportee generally cannot apply to return for up to 10 years.Said D’Angelo: “Because she does appear to have such a bona fide marriage with Mr. LaFlamme, it shocks this court that on April 10, 2000, after she had already had her child with Mr. LaFlamme, she walked through the doors of the Federal Building in Providence, Rhode Island and walked into an office of a federal immigration officer, held up her right hand, swore to tell the truth, then proceeded to give outright lies under oath.” In March 2006, the Board of Immigration Appeals upheld D’Angelo’s decision.

LaFlamme could have appealed. But her lawyer missed a filing deadline . In February, she was told she had no more recourse.

THROUGH IT ALL, LaFlamme was working at the DMV.

She’d applied for a job at the registry in 2000 . She filled out an employment eligibility form, and checked off a box indicating she was a U.S. citizen , said Najarian, the state administration director. LaFlamme also presented a valid Social Security card and a Rhode Island driver’s license.

If the state had known that LaFlamme was not a citizen and only held a work-authorization card, said Najarian, it would have known when that card would expire. But the state does not routinely check to verify someone’s citizenship status. “We have to rely on documents,” Najarian said.

LaFlamme was hired full-time in July 2000. Santiago had been hired a month earlier.

Last November, state police Detective Matthew Moynihan got a tip about the license fraud at the DMV. Even though LaFlamme should have been deported months ago, Capt. Stephen Lynch said that was held for the state police investigation.

She allegedly continued to fraudulently issue licenses to criminals, and then, in September, she issued a license to a source working with the state police, said Lynch.

That was the final piece the investigators were waiting for.

amilkovi@projo.com