Officer Rodney Cintron took his
car, damaged in an accident, to Majestic Auto Repair in Rosedale on the advice
of a colleague, not realizing that the man was getting paid to send him there.
When the city police officer
found out, he signed on to the scheme, according to court records. That
decision four years ago would lead to a federal prison term and the end of his
brief career.
The U.S. attorney's office for
Maryland announced Wednesday that Cintron, 32, had been sentenced to 42 months
in prison and was ordered to pay $40,000 in restitution, half to the Police
Department and half split among several insurance companies, for accepting
kickbacks from the car shop's owners.
The extortion scheme involved up
to 50 Baltimore officers, 15 of whom were convicted in federal court, according
to court records. Cintron's sentence is the longest any officer has received
thus far — a full year more than any other offender.
Prosecutors describe the Middle
River man as a leader of the conspiracy, which involved referring car-crash
customers to Majestic in exchange for cash. He falsified accident reports to
bolster insurance claims, added damage to vehicles and filed phony claims for
his own car, according to his plea agreement. He brought his wife into the
scheme, allowing her to pick up illegal payments on his behalf, documents say.
The total loss caused by Cintron
is at least $120,000, prosecutors said, though only $13,000 went to Cintron,
according to his Washington-based attorney, David Benowitz.
"At the time of his
participation, he was struggling to support his family of five on his BPD
salary of $42,000 per year," Benowitz wrote in a sentencing memorandum.
"The proceeds of the scheme were used to make ends meet and to pay
household bills."
Cintron joined the Baltimore
force in May 2007 and was initially assigned to the Northeastern District. He
was lured into the conspiracy in 2008, court records say, after his bumper was
damaged in an accident.
Another officer recommended that
he go see brothers Hernan and Edwin Mejia, who owned Majestic. Hernan Mejia
told him that the officer who sent him "would get paid" for the
referral and that "Cintron could make money for referring cars to Majestic
as well," the plea agreement states.
Cintron sent customers to
Majestic for commissions of $100 to $250 per vehicle. He told at least three
other officers about the setup, bringing them on board.
Prosecutors characterized that as
recruiting, but Cintron's lawyer played down the association.
"Mr. Cintron told colleagues
about the referral fees he was receiving, and many of them chose to engage in
the scheme with him," the sentencing memorandum states, putting the onus
on the officers.
The sentencing memorandum
describes Cintron as a family man who lives with his father-in-law, his wife,
and their three boys, ages 5, 8 and 12. He coaches one son's baseball and
football teams and volunteers at his children's elementary schools.
In letters submitted to the
court, Cintron's friends and neighbors said he was a "person of good moral
character," an attentive father and an inspirational coach, who put others
before himself.
Cintron won a citation in 2009
for helping arrest a man armed with a .22-caliber revolver and was once named
employee of the month. A letter from Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III,
also submitted to the court, thanks him for a "job well done" in
January 2010.
Later that year, Cintron was
suspended for reasons that have not been made public and reassigned to Central
Records; police declined to explain why Wednesday. He was charged in the
extortion scheme in February 2011.
Cintron now works as a property
inspector for a private company, doing home occupant checks for banks.
In a letter to U.S. District
Judge Catherine C. Blake, who oversaw his case, Cintron expressed regret for
his actions.
"Words can never fully
convey my remorse for the shame, disgrace and pain that I have inflicted on the
department and my family, particularly my eldest son, who looked up to me and
has now become a shell of the young vibrant boy I knew, and my parents, who
always expected great things from me," he wrote. "I failed everyone,
including my superiors and fellow officers in the department."
Cintron said he ended his
relationship with Majestic a year before his arrest. His attorney recommended that
Cintron be sentenced to probation or home detention.
But Blake disagreed, handing down
the stiffest sentence in the scheme to date.
Ten officers have been sentenced
to terms of between eight and 30 months. More than a dozen others have been
suspended from the force, though they were not criminally charged.
Four officers, including the one
who chose to go to trial, have yet to be sentenced, as have the Mejia brothers,
who pleaded guilty in the conspiracy and agreed to cooperate with law
enforcement.
One officer was prosecuted in
state court, receiving a sentence of probation before judgment that will allow
him to keep a clean record if he follows certain rules.
In a statement, police spokesman
Anthony Guglielmi said the department, which initiated the investigation, hopes
the sentences and restitution orders send "a clear message that
undermining the trust of the people of Baltimore and dishonoring the integrity
of this agency will not be tolerated."
Said Benowitz in an interview:
"I think he's sincerely remorseful for what happened. It was not his
intent for things to sort of spiral this way."