D.C. POLICE OFFICER SENTENCED FOR INSURANCE FRAUD

Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran, Jr., announced today that Calvin L. Roots, Jr., 40, a D.C. Metropolitan Police Officer who resides in Forestville, Maryland, was given a suspended sentence for filing a false insurance claim with State Farm Insurance. The conviction followed a joint investigation conducted by the Insurance Fraud Division of the Maryland Insurance Administration and the Office of the Attorney General.

According to the Statement of Facts supplied to Judge David A. Boynton of the Montgomery County Circuit Court, in August of 2000 Roots purchased a 1993 Chevrolet pickup truck from a Virginia dealer who had purchased the truck at an auction for abandoned vehicles in the District of Columbia. Roots then insured the vehicle with State Farm and obtained temporary registration for the truck in Maryland. In September of 2001, Roots obtained a permanent registration and a title for the truck and, five days later, he reported the truck stolen to the insurance company. He verbally told the insurance company (and later informed them in writing) that the truck had 80,400 miles less on the odometer than it actually had, and that the truck was equipped with an extended cab and a V-8 engine. The vehicle identification number (VIN) indicated the truck had a conventional cab and a V-6 engine. Because of these misrepresentations Roots was paid $3,059 more than the truck was actually worth by State Farm. Roots also submitted a false invoice for stereo equipment allegedly installed in the truck to State Farm. The invoice listed the value of the equipment as $3,638. The owner of Consumer Electronics, where the invoice was purportedly issued, stated that the invoice was false. Moreover, the invoice indicated that Maryland sales tax was collected on both the equipment and the labor to install it. Maryland sales tax is not supposed to be assessed against such labor charges.

Roots was given a sentence that was “generally suspended” and was placed on two (2) years supervised probation. He was ordered to pay $3,059 in restitution to State Farm. Roots agreed to resign from the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department as part of the plea agreement.

Attorney General Curran said, “False insurance claims cause all of us to pay higher insurance premiums and all who perpetrate such crime, regardless of whom they are, will be held accountable.”

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