In secret FBI recordings, former state Sen. Thomas Bromwell bragged that cable provider Comcast “needed him.” He said the owner of Pimlico racetrack would be “licking his boots.” He called himself a “rainmaker.”
But Bromwell?s braggadocio caught up with him Tuesday, when he entered a guilty plea in U.S. District Court in Baltimore to charges of racketeering and filing a false tax return.
“Nobody is too powerful to be held accountable,” Maryland U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein said outside the courthouse.
Bromwell, 58, is expected to face six to eight years in prison when he is sentenced by U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz on Nov. 16. Bromwell?s wife, Mary Patricia, who Motz said was a “minimal participant” in the scheme, pleaded guilty to a single count of mail fraud. Sentencing guidelines call for her to serve two to three years.
The couple briefly hugged after admitting to accepting $85,000 in construction work on their house and $192,000 for a no-show job taken by Mary Patricia Bromwell at a company operated by Poole and Kent, a mechanical contracting firm. In exchange, Bromwell helped company President W. David Stoffregen win multimillion-dollar minority contracts.
“I?ll be all right,” Bromwell told reporters as he left the courthouse holding hands with his wife. “I?m ready to start living instead of dying.”
Once a powerful Baltimore County Democrat, Bromwell served in the General Assembly for 23 years. His lawyer, Barry Pollack, disputed that Bromwell ripped off the residents of Maryland.
“The taxpayers have gotten tremendous service from Mr. Bromwell,” he said. “… The contracts that were given out were given out to qualified contractors who did a good job for the people of Maryland.”
Nine people including Stoffregen have pleaded guilty in connection to the case. The Bromwells will forfeit up to $2 million in cash and property, including their Parkville home, according to the plea agreement ? though Pollack told Motz he hoped the judge would allow the couple to keep the house.
William Chase, special agent in charge of the Baltimore branch of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said his office is continuing to investigate political corruption in Maryland. He said no further investigations would arise from the Bromwell case.
Rosenstein called Bromwell?s prosecution a “very important case” for Maryland residents.
“Mr. Bromwell and his wife have been held accountable for engaging in a pattern of corruption and fraud that extended over seven years,” Rosenstein said. “This was not a mistake. This was not a technical violation. This was not a gray area. These were serious crimes of corruption, crimes that deserve to be prosecuted, crimes that people deserve to go to prison for.”
