$146,000 payback ordered following theft from dentist

Man must return at least $1,000 monthly for 10 years

Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2009

A judge has ordered that a Lexington Park man pay $146,354 in restitution through monthly payments over the next 10 years after his guilty plea to a theft scheme carried out at the dentist office where he worked.

Jeffrey Warren Carroll, 32, was sentenced last week to 10 years in prison, suspended in its entirety to 10 years of supervised probation on the condition that he pay at least $1,000 a month through the St. Mary's state's attorney's office. The restitution will repay the funds that Carroll pocketed during patient visits over a four-year-period while working as an administrative assistant at the Amin & Strouth dentistry business in Lexington Park.

A prosecutor said at an earlier plea hearing in the case that Carroll told the business' clients that they would get a discount if they paid in cash, when in fact he was overstating the regular price. The $146,000 in payments were never placed in the business' bank account.

In a separate matter, Robert Jacob Eberle Jr., 21, of Lexington Park was sentenced earlier this month to serve five years in prison after his guilty plea to conspiracy to commit a second-degree burglary from a break-in last June at a sporting goods store.

Three guns were stolen during the June 9 burglary at The Tackle Box business off Route 235 in Lexington Park, where one or more culprits broke through a rear wall, St. Mary's detectives reported after the incident. Investigators later learned of attempts to sell two high-powered rifles and a pellet gun reported missing from the store. Law officers eventually recovered all three weapons.

Eberle will be on supervised probation for five years after his release from prison.

Charges against 22-year-old Robert Damian McCarson of second-degree burglary, theft and property destruction from the incident were dismissed last August in district court.

In addition, James Herman Brawner, 67, of Fort Washington was released after serving 192 days in custody from his arrest and guilty plea to a charge of filing a false insurance claim of the theft of his pickup truck, which lawmen found last year at a Hollywood shop.

Brawner told police in Prince George's County that the 2007 Chevrolet Silverado had been stolen at a home-improvement store in Clinton, a police report states, and a $37,000 claim was initiated with the Nationwide General Insurance Co. St. Mary's sheriff's deputies got word that the truck earlier had arrived intact at Hollywood Used Auto Parts on Commerce Drive, where it was being stripped of its parts, according to the police report.

Charges against Bowie residents James Hyung Wom Kim, 50, and his wife, Choom Hyum Kim, 52, the proprietors of the business, of conspiring with Brawner to steal money from the insurance company were dismissed last December in exchange for their agreement to help in prosecuting Brawner.

Police reports state that detective David Alexander determined during the investigation that Brawner had been having trouble making his monthly payments on the truck, and that it was sold at the parts business for $1,000 two days before it was reported stolen.

The investigators determined that the truck was sold to have it destroyed, police reports state, and to get the insurance company to pay the $37,000 lien still due to GMAC financing.

jwharton@somdnews.com