Former Employee of the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services Sentenced for Theft

BALTIMORE, MD ( October 28, 2010) - Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler announced today that former Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services employee Benjamin F. Brown, 60, of Crofton, entered a plea of guilty to one count of felony theft scheme.  Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge George L. Russell, III sentenced Brown to a six month suspended sentence and placed him on two years of supervised probation.  Brown was also ordered to complete 300 hours of community service.

From 2001 until this year, Brown was employed as a deputy commissioner at the Department's Pre-Trial Detention Services Division handling financial matters.  Between June of 2006 and November of 2008, Brown took $12,500 of contaminated funds, money soiled by bodily fluids, which had been in the possession of individuals following an arrest.  During the course of the investigation, Brown admitted to disposing of those funds at a junk yard, contrary to his supervisor's directives and U.S. Treasury regulations.  He further admitted that on several occasions he took some of the cash for his own personal use.  Brown then arranged for money to be taken from the Department's general funds to cover his actions.

The conviction follows a joint investigation by the Attorney General's Criminal Division, the Maryland State Police and the Department of Public Safety & Correctional Services' Internal Investigative Unit.  In making today's announcement, Attorney General Gansler thanked Assistant Attorney General Megan Davey Limarzi, Maryland State Police Sgt. Glen Peterson, and Public Safety & Correctional Services Detective Mark J. Forrest for their work on the case.