Following a search that was started when the individual failed to show up for a trial, a former political staffer from Maryland who was wanted on corruption charges passed away on Monday after being shot by law enforcement officers when they confronted him, according to his lawyer.
The FBI informed attorney Joseph Murtha that Roy McGrath had passed away.
He noted that it wasn’t immediately apparent whether McGrath’s injury resulted from self-infliction or a gunfight with agents.
Before now, the FBI had stated that McGrath, a former top adviser to a previous governor of Maryland, had been taken to the hospital after an agent-involved shooting, but it opted not to provide further details.
According to her attorney William Brennan, Laura Bruner, the wife of McGrath, was “extremely upset” following her husband’s passing.
In an earlier email, FBI Supervisory Special Agent Shayne Buchwald from Maryland stated that McGrath was shot around 6:30 p.m. during “an agent-involved shooting.” in a business district on the outskirts of Knoxville, TN. McGrath, according to Buchwald, was brought to a hospital.
It took some time before additional information, such as how McGrath was hurt and what caused it, was made public. A probe was being conducted into the shooting.
Buchwald denied confirming that McGrath had passed away but stated, “The FBI takes any gunshot events involving our agents or task force members seriously.”
Larry Hogan, a former governor of Maryland, had McGrath, 53, as his chief of staff. Following his disappearance, he was listed as a wanted fugitive, and according to the FBI, he posed a risk of making an international escape.
Hogan said he and his wife Yumi expressed their “deep sorrow” at the awful circumstances. We are offering prayers for Mr. McGrath’s family and close friends.
According to Murtha, his client always maintained his innocence, and the death was “a horrible ending to the past three weeks of uncertainty.”
Murtha stated that he thought McGrath, who had relocated to Naples, Florida, was going to board a flight to Maryland the previous evening after failing to show up at Baltimore’s federal courts on March 13.
The judge ordered the arrest of potential jurors instead of starting the jury selection process.
A $233,648 severance payment, the equivalent of one year’s pay as the head of the Maryland Environmental Service, was allegedly obtained unlawfully by McGrath in 2021 after he reportedly told the agency’s board that the governor had approved it.
About around $170,000 in costs, he was additionally charged with fraud and embezzlement.
Not guilty was McGrath’s plea.
In 2020, after learning of the payments, McGrath, Hogan’s chief of staff, resigned after only 11 weeks.
He would have been subject to a potential penalty of 10 years for each count of embezzling money from an organization that received more than $10,000 in government assistance, in addition to a maximum term of 20 years for each of the four counts of wire fraud if convicted of the federal charges.
Fugitive Roy McGrath, a former top aide to Maryland’s ex-governor, was killed in a shooting, when FBI agents found him three weeks after he failed to appear in court on fraud charges.
He was also accused of embezzlement and falsifying documents. pic.twitter.com/qzt9h6iFkl
— CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) April 4, 2023
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