FORMER BALTIMORE CITY SOCIAL SERVICES WORKERS SENTENCED TO 6 MONTHS HOME DETENTION FOR STEALING OVER $100,000

Attorney General J. Joseph Curran, Jr. announced today the sentencing of R. Pamela Mitchell, 50, and Helene Pendleton, 45, former employees of the Baltimore City Department of Social Services ("DSS"), for felony theft. The charges, which were filed by the Baltimore City Grand Jury on March 24, 2004, outlined how the defendants stole money from DSS in the form of fraudulent overtime requests between December 1999 and December 2002.

The defendants pled guilty back on August 5, 2004 to stealing approximately $115,000. Ms. Mitchell and Ms. Pendleton forged the signature of a supervisor in order to have the overtime approved, yet neither of them ever worked those requested hours. As a matter of fact, they were never even approved for the overtime and continued to forge the signature covertly over the three year period. In some instances, the defendants were not even at work during the regular hours of the days they were getting paid overtime (even receiving overtime on September 11, 2001 though their building was closed due to the terror attacks on the United States.)

Today the defendants appeared before the Honorable Paul Smith of the Circuit Court for Baltimore City for sentencing. Judge Smith sentenced them both to 5 years suspending all but 6 months home detention to be followed by 5 years of supervised probation. During that period of probation Ms. Mitchell will have to repay $65,000 and Ms. Pendleton will have to repay $50,000. The case was investigated by the Inspector General’s Office of the State Department of Human Resources and the Maryland State Police. It was prosecuted by the Criminal Investigations Division of the Attorney General’s Office.

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