FORMER UMAB EMPLOYEE PLEADS GUILTY TO 9-11 BOMB SCARE, IDENTITY FRAUD AND OTHER OFFENSES

Attorney General J. Joseph Curran, Jr. announced today that Clarice Contonia Snowden, 34, formerly of Cockeysville, Maryland, pled guilty yesterday in Baltimore City Circuit Court to charges that she made a False Statement and Rumor of a Bomb, a felony, on September 11, 2001. Snowden also pled guilty to charges of felony theft, forgery of checks, and three counts of identity fraud, crimes discovered during the investigation of the bomb scare. Sentencing is scheduled before the Honorable John Philip Miller on May 14, 2003.

In support of the Guilty pleas, the State presented a statement of fact of the findings of the Office of the Attorney General, Criminal Investigation Division investigation of Clarice Snowden. Since August 2000, Snowden had worked as an administrative assistant for the University of Maryland at Baltimore in the Environmental Health and Safety department, located at 714 W. Lombard Street, Baltimore. Mid-morning on September 11, 2001, following the terrorist attacks, the University of Maryland at Baltimore Police Department received a telephone call stating there were five bombs in the UMAB buildings and that they should be evacuated. The telephone call was traced to Snowden's desk at the UMAB Department of Environmental Health and Safety and the recorded statement was identified by co-workers as the voice of Clarice Snowden.

Clarice Snowden was fired on September 14, 2001. After she was discharged, papers in her desk were found that contained personal identifying information relating to four other women, three being former UMAB employees. The papers included a Social Security card, fictitious driver's license, and a loan application, all using the names and Social Security numbers of the other women. The investigation revealed that Snowden had used personal identifying information of these women to open bank accounts and obtain loans and credit cards. In addition, Snowden used information from a former employee's personnel records to cause the State of Maryland to issue a duplicate final payroll check in the amount of $962.32. That check was deposited in Snowden's credit union account.

The UMAB Police Department, Office of the Inspector General for the Social Security Administration, and Maryland State Police assisted the Criminal Investigations Divisions in the investigation of this case.

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