FORMER STATE EMPLOYEE SENTENCED FOR THEFT SCHEME

Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran, Jr. announced today that Stacey B. Brown, of Contee Rd. in Laurel, was sentenced to three years to the Department of Corrections, with all but six months suspended (to be served on house detention) and was ordered to pay $28,000 of restitution to the U.S. Department of Education as a condition of probation. Brown, 38, was sentenced by Prince George’s County Circuit Court Judge Michele D. Hotten after pleading guilty in April to felony theft.

In a statement of facts read into the record at the time of the guilty plea, Judge Hotten learned Brown worked for Bowie State University in the Department of Education, where her responsibilities included processing invoices for a federally funded grant, which is designed to increase the use of technology in the classrooms at both the college and high school levels. Brown stole $28,000.00 from BSU by submitting and processing seven fraudulent invoices from 2001 to 2003. Brown filled out the invoices in the name of her minor son, and had the checks mailed to her home. Shortly after Brown resigned her position from BSU, a routine audit discovered payments from the grant to Brown’s son, who had not performed any work on behalf of the grant.

The matter was investigated and prosecuted by the Office of the Attorney General, Criminal Investigations Division, with invaluable investigative assistance by the Office of the Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Education and the Maryland State Police.