Officer received payments while
working a second job, prosecutors allege
By Luke BroadwaterThe Baltimore
Sun
A former Baltimore police
officer who now works for the Montgomery County police department has been
charged with felony workers' compensation fraud, state prosecutors said
Tuesday.
State Prosecutor Emmet C.
Davitt said that Montgomery County Police Officer Gilbert L. Payne is accused
in Baltimore City Circuit Court with perjury and felony workers compensation
fraud.
Payne left the Baltimore Police
Department on a full disability pension in 2007, prosecutors said. The charges
allege that Payne falsely testified under oath at a September 2008 workers'
compensation hearing that he was not employed at the time, nor had he been
employed since retiring from the city police department. In fact, he was
working full time as a sworn Towson University Police Officer, prosecutors said.
The charging document alleges that, as a result of this fraudulent
misrepresentation, he received just more than $30,000 in payments to which he
was not entitled.
The matter was referred to the
state prosecutor's office by the Baltimore City Inspector General.
"Testifying falsely under
oath and making false statements in order to fraudulently obtain additional
workers' compensation funds is never acceptable," Davitt said in a
statement. "It is particularly egregious, however, when such acts are committed
by a police officer sworn to uphold the law."
If convicted, Payne faces up to
10 years' imprisonment on the perjury count and 15 years' imprisonment and a
$15,000 fine on the felony workers' compensation count.
He could not immediately be
reached for comment.
