Three enter pleas in forgery case

Published 4:43 pm Saturday, December 19, 2009

Two Austin residents pleaded not guilty but a third woman pleaded guilty in a felony forgery case in which all three could face deportation.

Gilberto Briones-Vargas, 35, and Raul Gonzalez-Madrid, 30, each pleaded not guilty, while Josefina Munoz Hernandez, 25, entered a guilty plea.

Briones-Vargas has a March 8 trial date set; no date was set in Gonzalez-Madrid’s case.

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A sentencing date has not been set for Hernandez.

Authorities found documents with aliases linked to all three during a Dec. 1 search of 1704 Oakland Ave. E., according to a criminal complaint. That home belongs to Faustino Munoz-Hernandez, 29, who was being investigated for using a dead individual’s name to get medical benefits at the Austin Medical Center and to work at Quality Pork Processors in Austin.

Munoz-Hernandez pleaded guilty earlier this month.

The three other defendants also likely worked at QPP under aliases, according to pay stubs found at the Oakland Avenue residence.

Hernandez and Gonzalez-Madrid both admitted to officers that they had been working at the plant with aliases, the complaint states.

Officers ran the three aliases through a state database and linked photos of each to Mexican IDs with their true names that were also found at the home.