AG: Lieutenant at firearms range faked $74K in OT

Corrections officer indicted by grand jury was under investigators’ surveillance

A Maryland state corrections officer has been indicted for faking $74,000 in overtime while working as the supervisor of a firearms range at the state corrections complex in Jessup, the state attorney general said Wednesday.

Brent Spooner, 42, of Severn was indicted Oct. 9 by an Anne Arundel County grand jury with theft scheme between $25,000 and $100,000 and 32 counts of theft, Attorney General Brian E. Frosh said in a statement released by his office.

A lieutenant with the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services,

Spooner worked at the Jessup firearms range, supervising firearms training and recertifying employees. Since July 2019, Spooner falsely claimed approximately 80 hours of overtime each pay period, according to a summary of the indictment released by the attorney general.

He would indicate that he was working in one of the guard towers at the Jessup Correctional Institute or the Maryland Correctional Institute - Jessup, state prisons near the firing range.

As a supervisor, Spooner was able to receive payment with no supporting paperwork or use of the department’s biometric clock-in system.

Once Spooner’s scheme was discovered, department investigators began watching him. During periods when he later falsely claimed to be working overtime in a surveillance tower, he was observed at home, running errands, walking his dog and other personal activities, the attorney general’s statement said.

Documentation kept in the Maryland correctional facilities showed that different employees actually worked the overtime shifts Spooner claimed he worked.

“Lt. Spooner stole taxpayer dollars by falsely claiming a large amount of overtime,” Frosh said in a prepared statement. “When state employees lie about the hours they work, they are stealing from the honest, hardworking public servants and the taxpayers whom they serve.”

Spooner earned $107,000 in 2019, according to The Baltimore Sun’s database of state employee salary records. Of that, $31,000 was listed as overtime.

He was arrested Monday, taken before a District Court commissioner and released on $25,000 bail. No attorney is listed as representing him in court records, and he could not be reached for comment.