BALTIMORE (February 17, 2011) - Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler today announced that former Maryland State Trooper David McKinley Thomas, Jr., 40, pled guilty and was convicted of misconduct in office. Prince George’s County Circuit Court Judge Graydon S. McKee, III sentenced Thomas to six months in jail, all suspended, 18 months unsupervised probation and ordered $5,502 in restitution.
Thomas, a 17-year sworn MSP trooper, was assigned to the Maryland State Police (MSP) Forestville Barrack in Prince George’s County. The investigation revealed that between July 1, 2009 and January 25, 2010, Thomas participated in extra-duty, overtime assignments performing “incident management” in the area around the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. The bridge program relied upon a specific number of MSP troopers to quickly respond to large disruptions in traffic flow and major incidents due to construction projects underway near the bridge. MSP troopers participating in the Bridge Incident Management program were paid overtime amounting to 1.5 times their base salary.
MSP Sergeant Stacey Gappert, the incident management coordinator for the Forestville Barrack discovered improprieties in a few of Thomas’ overtime reports. An internal affairs investigation determined that Thomas submitted false overtime on 15 occasions over a seven month period. In total, he corruptly obtained $5,502 in overtime payments. Thomas voluntarily resigned from the Maryland State Police effective March 18, 2010.
In making today’s announcement, Attorney General Gansler thanked the Maryland State Police for their aggressive and exhaustive investigation of the case. He also thanked Assistant Attorney General Kate O’Donnell for her work on the case.
Source: Office of Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler