FMCSA inspector charged with bribery

Bribery involves offering or accepting something of value in a situation where the person who accepts the bribe is expected to perform a service which goes beyond his or her normal job description. For example, a motorist being ticketed for parking in the wrong place might offer a bribe to the police officer to ask him or her to tear up the ticket.

A federal court has indicted a Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration border inspector for allegedly taking a bribe in exchange for providing a Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance decal for a truck without inspection.

On June 8, a U.S. District Court grand jury indicted Eric Hernandez, an FMCSA safety specialist. The Laredo, Texas, court charged he sold a driver a Level I CVSA sticker knowing the vehicle lacked the corresponding inspection. The state public safety department heard of the alleged incident, then obtained video footage of it before arresting Hernandez. The FMCSA subsequently placed him on administrative leave. State and federal inspectors issue the CVSA decal to trucks passing roadside or periodic inspection.
An indictment is a grand jury’s formal charge that it found sufficient evidence the defendant committed the crime to justify a trial. The investigation is ongoing.

There exists, however, a fourth position, the social-personalist one. It holds bribery to be a moral issue, that is, it affects both the good of society and the good of persons—the good of society by its impact on the ideals of the society, the good of persons by involving them in acts unworthy of their nature