The indicted former state senator accused of taking bribes has agreed to step down as head of the Injured Workers Insurance Fund at the end of the year, the public-private corporation said Tuesday.
Thomas Bromwell will receive two years of his $200,000 salary as president and chief executive officer in the separation agreement between the former Baltimore County politician and the organization?s board. Bromwell, who will stand trial against federal racketeering charges in March, has lead the largest writer of worker?s compensation insurance in Maryland since April 2002.
“We have always taken the position we would wait and see when the trial would begin and how long it would be necessary for Mr. Bromwell to be out,” said Daniel McKew, the board?s chairman. “We figured it might be time to talk about how we would handle that, whether six months without a CEO would make sense, or discuss a mutual separation.”
McKew, who will take over Bromwell?s responsibilities until a new CEO is hired, described Bromwell?s reaction to the pre-established negotiation as “accepting.” Neither Bromwell nor his attorney, Robert Schulman, returned a call for comment.
Bromwell served in the state?s General Assembly for 23 years, including an eight-year term as president of the Senate Finance Committee. He and his wife, Mary Patricia, were indicted in October 2005 for their dealings with W. David Stoffregen, the former president of Poole and Kent, a mechanical-contracting firm.
Prosecutors claim the Bromwells received more than $85,000 in construction work on their home and $192,000 for a no-show job taken by Mary Patricia Bromwell at a company operated by Poole and Kent. In exchange, Bromwell helped Stoffregen?s companies win multi-million dollar minority contracts.
The Bromwells arepleading not guilty. Stoffregen pleaded guilty in November along with five others in connection to the case, according to prosecutors. Their pleas are likely precursors to testimony against the Bromwells in court, local attorneys said.
“The more people who have pled guilty, the more it?s not going to work every well to roll the dice and go to trial,” said Byron L. Warnken, a professor at the University of Baltimore?s law school. “It?s a real game of poker.”
IWIF?s board is appointed by the governor. The corporation is not state-funded, but its employees are considered state workers.
