Man, woman who illegally worked at restaurant sentenced

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) – A man who worked at a Springfield business using illegal documentation pleaded guilty to the crime.

Abel Morales, 41, and his wife, 43-year-old Guadalupe Lugo-Segovia, both entered guilty pleas to charges of using fraudulent social security numbers to work at Papa Frank’s Italian Restaurant (4111 Wabash Ave.) in Springfield. Immigrant and Customs Enforcement (ICE) investigators say they looked into the restaurant’s hiring process in 2017 and discovered the issue.

The couple is from Mexico and spent over a decade living in the Springfield area. They were charged with fraud and misuse of visas and permits in September of 2018.

Federal court records show Lugo-Segovia was sentenced by Judge Sue Myerscough earlier in December to 10 days behind bars, which she had already served, along with supervised release over nine months. The supervised release includes drug tests and reporting to a probation officer.

Documents for Morales’ Wednesday sentencing were not available in court records Thursday, and WAND-TV was told the person who could provide those details was out when it called the U.S. Attorney’s office in Springfield in the afternoon.

The couple could still face deportation, but a timeline for that decision is unclear.