BALTIMORE CITY POLICE OFFICER CONVICTED
OF INSURANCE FRAUD

Attorney General J. Joseph Curran, Jr., announced today that Lawrence A. Brunt, Jr., of Baltimore, was convicted of felony insurance fraud in the Circuit Court for Frederick County on November 10, 2003. The conviction follows a joint investigation conducted by the Insurance Fraud Division of the Maryland Insurance Administration and the Office of the Attorney General. Brunt, a Baltimore City Police officer, had been charged with engaging in a continuing course of conduct between February 22, 2003 and February 26, 2003 in which he knowingly presented false information to State Farm Insurance Companies in an attempt to support a false claim for $3,813.60.

Evidence presented by the prosecutor included that on February 22, 2003, Brunt reported to State Farm Insurance Companies that on February 16, 2003 while he was at the Franklin Mall in Philadelphia, someone “keyed” (intentionally scratched) his 1998 Mercedes Sport Utility Vehicle and removed four chrome rims and tires from the vehicle. Brunt had purchased the chrome rims and tires on February 8, 2003 for $3,813.60. An inspection of Brunt’s vehicle by a State Farm Insurance Companies adjuster on February 25, 2003 found evidence that his vehicle had been scratched, but there was no evidence that the wheels and tires had been removed from the vehicle. In a statement Brunt gave to State Farm Insurance Companies on February 26, 2003 Brunt claimed that the chrome wheels and tires had not been mounted on the vehicle at the time of purchase, and that had been taken from the inside of the vehicle. Investigator Charles Jones of the Insurance Fraud Division of the Maryland Insurance Administration determined through investigation that the chrome rims and tires had been mounted by the vendor at the time of purchase. Additionally, Mr. Jones observed Brunt’s vehicle on June 24, 2003 and found that the wheels and rims on the vehicle at that time were not the stock wheels and tires that were on the vehicle on February 25th when the State Farm adjuster inspected the damage, but instead were the same type of chrome rim and tire as purchased by Brunt on February 8th.

The Honorable G. Edward Dwyer, Jr. ordered that the Division of Parole and Probation conduct a pre-sentence investigation of Brunt and scheduled sentencing for February 12, 2004.

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