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Parts shop owner cleared in insurance fraud probe
Truck's former owner wanted for missing court date
Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2008
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Charges filed against the proprietors of a used auto parts store in Hollywood were dismissed Friday in exchange for their help in prosecuting the former owner of a truck found partially dismantled at the business.
St. Mary's grand jurors charged Bowie residents James Hyung Wom Kim, 50, and his wife, Choom Hyum Kim, 52, with conspiring last June with a Fort Washington resident to steal money from the Nationwide General Insurance Co.
The indictments against the couple were dismissed "on the specific condition that they provide state's evidence against James H. Brawner when he is picked up," St. Mary's State's Attorney Richard Fritz said during a brief court proceeding.
Brawner, 66, also is accused in an indictment of falsely reporting to the insurance company that the truck had been stolen. He 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 insurance company. 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. Police raided the business June 13 and found the truck stripped of some of its pieces.
St. Mary's Circuit Judge C. Clarke Raley noted Friday that Brawner had missed a pretrial hearing last month in his case, and that a bench warrant was issued for his arrest. A court clerk told the judge that Brawner had been to the clerk's counter Friday morning, inquiring about a docket call scheduled for that day in his case.
"You directed him to come to our courtroom, and now he's disappeared," Raley said. "The bench warrant remains in effect."
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 a $37,000 lien still due to GMAC financing.
The prosecutor noted after Friday's proceeding that the parts from the truck have a combined value exceeding that of the intact vehicle.
