Attorney General Frosh Announces Sentencing of Former Public Employee Who Stole More Than $200K in Child Support Payments

Baltimore, MD - Attorney General Brian E. Frosh announced today that former Child Support Enforcement Administration employee Delores Gertrude Jones, 62, of North Beach, was sentenced in two cases involving theft from the state agency.

Jones pleaded guilty in December in two separate cases -- one for theft over $100,000 and a second for theft over $10,000. In the first case, Prince George's County Circuit Court Judge Graydon S. McKee, III (retired) sentenced Jones to 15 years incarceration, suspending all but three years. Additionally, upon her release from jail, she will be placed on five years supervised probation and ordered to pay $203,876 in restitution. In the second case, Judge McKee issued a five-year prison sentence, all of which was suspended, placed Jones on five years of probation and ordered her to pay $25,300 in restitution. Both sentences will run concurrently.

"Public servants who abuse the trust placed in them will pay the price," said Attorney General Frosh. "These funds were intended to support children and the hardworking, single parents who are doing all they can to care for and raise their children."

Jones was the deputy director at the Child Support Enforcement Administration office in Temple Hills in Prince George's County, and was the central figure in two investigations involving theft of funds from the agency between 2008 and 2013. In one case, Jones used her access to a dormant bank account to steal $25,300 in cash between March and June of 2013.

In a second scheme, Jones manipulated the agency's computer system and changed addresses on accounts with payments awaiting distribution so that child support checks would be mailed to addresses she controlled. Jones then deposited those checks in one of several bank accounts and withdrew the money for her personal use. Four of the bank accounts used in the scheme were opened by Jones in the name of her church, where she served as Finance Director, enabling her to launder stolen funds without detection. In total, Jones stole $203,876 between January 2008 and July 2013.

The investigation was conducted by the Maryland Office of the Attorney General's Criminal Division and the Maryland State Police, with assistance from the Maryland Department of Human Resources' Office of the Inspector General and the Maryland Child Support Enforcement Administration. Attorney General Frosh thanked Assistant Attorney General Megan Davey Limarzi, Investigative Auditor Harry Schulz, Maryland State Police Cpl. Sha Brown, U.S. Postal Inspector Investigator Joshua Burch and PNC Fraud Investigator Rob Smetzer for their work on the case.