Unlicensed Social Worker Pleads Guilty in Talbot
and Anne Arundel Counties

BALTIMORE, MD (August 2, 2007) - Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler announced today that Jennifer Mast Rinehart of Cordova, Maryland, pled guilty in the Circuit Courts for Talbot County and Anne Arundel County to charges that she practiced social work without a license while employed for the Departments of Social Services in these counties. Talbot County Circuit Court Judge Sidney S. Campen sentenced Rinehart to a 60 day suspended sentence, two years of supervised probation, and 100 hours of community service. Anne Arundel County Circuit Court Judge William C. Mulford, II sentenced Rinehart to another concurrent 60 day suspended sentence, $500 fine, and one year unsupervised probation.

According to facts discovered through the State’s investigation, Rinehart went to work for the Anne Arundel County Department of Social Services in January, 1994 while she attended graduate school at the University of Maryland School of Social Work. After graduating in May, 2002, she gave her supervisors a copy of what she purported to be her Maryland license to practice social work. Believing that the license was authentic, the Anne Arundel County Department of Social Services promoted her in June, 2003 to the position of Social Worker II, a position requiring a valid Maryland graduate social worker license.

On August 7, 2006, Rinehart transferred to the Talbot County Department of Social Services where she practiced social work. After only a few days, the Talbot County DSS personnel director checked the authenticity of the license and learned that Rinehart had never been licensed to practice social work at any level by the Board of Social Work Examiners. Rinehart was discharged from her position on August 22, 2006.

An investigation by the Board of Social Work Examiners revealed that the licenses submitted by Ms. Rinehart to both the Anne Arundel County and Talbot County Departments of Social Services were fraudulent.

The case was prosecuted by the Criminal Division of the Attorney General’s Office. In making today’s announcement, Attorney General Gansler thanked Assistant Attorney General Kate O’Donnell for her work on the case.