October 3, 2024

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Maryland lawmaker billed with theft and misconduct in office environment

Maryland lawmaker billed with theft and misconduct in office environment

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A veteran Maryland lawmaker has been billed with theft, embezzlement and multiple counts of misconduct in workplace, according to charging documents filed by the state prosecutor’s business office Wednesday.

Republican Del. Richard K. Impallaria of Harford County, who has served in the General Assembly for two a long time, faces seven counts stemming from his alleged unlawful use of point out revenue to pay out for a “district office” in Essex, outside the house of his district’s boundaries, and a “personal cottage” up coming door.

Impallaria is charged with thieving $44,100 from Maryland in the variety of the month-to-month rental payments and with committing fraud by applying $92,800 in point out funds to spend for the “district business.”

Impallaria, who shed the Republican most important on July 19, did not quickly react to an email and a telephone phone in search of remark. His legal professional, Steve Silverman, claimed Impallaria has been informed of the allegations “for some time” and denies wrongdoing.

“Having investigated the Condition Prosecutor’s model of details as alleged … alongside with interviewing above a dozen witnesses and applicable documents, I can say in no unsure conditions that Delegate Impallaria has not violated possibly the letter or spirit of the law,” Silverman said in a statement Wednesday.

According to the charging document, submitted Wednesday in Anne Arundel County Circuit Courtroom, prosecutors allege that “the state of Maryland paid $92,800 in rent for the ‘district office’ at 4 Punte Lane” in excess of the class of 10 yrs — 2 times as much rent as other units in the identical local community. “During that exact same time,” prosecutors allege, Impallaria “paid $.00 in hire for his neighboring cottage.”

Prosecutors say that Impallaria was utilizing the purported district office environment to keep private objects, which includes bed room furniture, pellet rifles and ammunition, clothes, constructing supplies, marketing campaign components, skis and coolers.

The point out prosecutor also alleges that Impallaria fabricated invoices, publishing reimbursements for objects, together with furniture and workplace supplies, that ended up never ordered. According to the charging doc, Impallaria allegedly devised a plan that authorized him to acquire a test for $2,405.03 from the General Assembly for home furniture he never ordered and a credit for the exact same sum from a vendor. Afterwards, in accordance to the charging doc, the vendor created campaign letters and fundraising supplies and Impallaria applied the credit score to enable shell out the invoice.

“Elected officials are expected to be great stewards of the State’s resources,” point out prosecutor Charlton T. Howard III said in a statement. “Any official who abuses the general public believe in for particular achieve have to be held accountable.”

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Jeremy Baker, main of workers to Household Speaker Adrienne A. Jones (D-Baltimore County), mentioned he could not comment on the ongoing case, “but Speaker Jones expects every member of the Dwelling of Delegates to uphold the legislation and be sincere stewards of taxpayer bucks. The misuse of condition resources is an difficulty we choose critically.”

Impallaria, a polarizing determine and very long-standing conservative in Annapolis, has served on the Household Financial Issues Committee since he started serving as a delegate in 2003. In the previous four yrs, he has sponsored 13 parts of legislation, several of which were regional alcohol expenses.

Impallaria has been at odds at instances with users of his very own get together in 2019, a choose dismissed a defamation suit he filed versus four Republican Celebration officers, whom he accused of chatting about him throughout a conference, the Baltimore Sunshine has documented.

In 2017, he served two times in jail for drunken driving, after he was convicted of driving although intoxicated all through the annual Maryland Association of Counties summer convention in Ocean Town.