The D.C. Department of Motor Vehicles now says that it had been notified about three DUI convictions involving the woman who is now charged with a fatal crash on Rock Creek Parkway that killed three people, walking back past claims that it was not given information about the offenses — some of which likely would have resulted in the woman’s driver’s license being revoked.

The about-face came in a letter from DMV Director Gabriel Robinson to Councilmember Charles Allen (D-Ward 6), who in late May asked Robinson for clarity on what the agency did or did not know about Nakita Walker, who was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol in 2015, 2018, and 2020. She has now been charged with three counts of second-degree murder for the high-speed mid-March crash in which Lyft driver Mohamed Kamara, 42, and passengers Olvin Torres Velasquez, 23, and Jonathan Cabrera Mendez, 23, were killed in a head-on collision near the P Street exit off Rock Creek Parkway. (Police allege she was intoxicated at the time of the crash.)

During a hearing on May 23, Deputy Mayor for Operations and Infrastructure Lucinda Babers — who was once the director of the DMV — told the council the agency had received no notifications from D.C. Superior Court of Walker’s convictions, which under city law would have triggered a suspension of her driver’s license and other sanctions. But in his letter on Monday to Allen, Robinson delicately walked that claim back.

“At the time of the roundtable, DMV had been unable to verify that the previous convictions had been electronically transferred to DMV; therefore, Deputy Mayor Baber’s statement during the roundtable was accurate,” he wrote. “After the roundtable and in consultation with the court, DMV searched and was able to confirm that the files were properly sent, but not properly processed.”

That largely squares with what court officials told DCist/WAMU: they electronically send information on DUI convictions to the DMV, and any issues in receiving and processing are on the DMV’s side. In his letter to Allen, Robinson concedes that a “technical miscommunication” may have prevented the information on Walker’s convictions from being properly processed on the DMV’s end, and that the DMV is working with the courts to ensure it does not recur.

“DMV and the court are committed to ensuring that conviction data is timely transferred and processed between the entities,” wrote Robinson. “Both entities are working to put in place safeguards to prevent future technical miscommunications.”

But Allen says that there’s still more he wants to know from the DMV, specifically in how many other instances did the same miscommunication occur, allowing drivers with DUI convictions to avoid having their licenses revoked.

“They tell us that they failed, but they did not tell us why they failed and the scope of the problem. I am left believing that Ms. Walker is in no way the only person they missed. I am left thinking we have a serious problem at the DMV, and that means there are more dangerous drivers left on the street,” he said. “This is more than a glitch.”

Another concern lawmakers raised with Walker’s situation was that her car had dozens of unpaid speeding tickets, totalling more than $12,000 in fines. Allen says he is working on broader legislation to address dangerous driving on D.C. streets, and that he’s been learning more about issues within the DMV from “individuals who have been willing to come forward.”

Walker appeared in court on Tuesday, and remains in custody pending further legal proceedings against her. In an interview with U.S. Park Police officers the day she was arrested, she accused her passenger of forcing her to drive at high speeds down Rock Creek Parkway to flee a police stop.