Mail Fraud

MARTINSBURG, W.VA. - A former West Virginia State Police sergeant was found guilty Friday of mail fraud in U.S. District Court in Martinsburg and could be sentenced to 20 years in prison and fined $250,000. George William Bradshaw III, 58, of 614 E. Moler Ave. in Martinsburg, appeared relatively calm after the verdict was announced about 3:15 p.m. and even comforted a family member who couldn't hold back tears. The verdict - whihc came after more than three hours of deliberations - concluded five days of proceedings that featured testimony by at least 16 current and former officers with the agency.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - A former West Virginia State Police sergeant was sentenced Monday in U.S. District Court to one year of probation and ordered to pay restitution in connection with a mail fraud case, U.S. Attorney Thomas E. Johnston said. David Forman, 37, of 3527 Greensburg Road, Martinsburg, pleaded guilty in December 2005 to one count of an indictment charging him with mail fraud. Forman made a false insurance claim that his automobile was hit by a deer, but Forman's automobile was damaged when he purchased it, Johnston said.

The four men indicted last year in two Hagerstown-based get-rich-quick companies that bilked thousands of consumers out of millions of dollars have pleaded guilty to mail fraud. John Thomas Polk, 39, of Dallas is free on $1 million bond after his plea May 3 in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, according to Lynne A. Battaglia, U.S. attorney for Maryland. David C. Bowen, 36, also of Dallas; Steven Clements, 45, of Humble, Texas; and Matthew F. Foulger, 31, of Arizona, all have pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud, according to the U.S. attorney's office.

A former Hagerstown stockbroker has been charged with embezzling more than $700,000 from clients, the U.S. Department of Justice said Thursday. William S. Hatcher Sr. was charged in a one-count criminal information with mail fraud, Assistant U.S. Attorney Dale Kelberman said Thursday. The charge was filed in U.S. District Court in Baltimore. [cont. from front page ] Hatcher was not taken into custody, Kelberman said. Hatcher, 40, worked for Ferris, Baker, Watts, Inc., in Hagerstown for 15 years.

MARTINSBURG, W.VA. charlestown@herald-mail.com A former West Virginia State Police sergeant who was a supervisor of the state police detachment in Martinsburg has been indicted by a federal grand jury on a charge of mail fraud after an audit of the detachment's evidence room revealed that $18,542 was missing, according to U.S. Attorney Thomas E. Johnston. The case involved reports that were altered or were fraudulent and investigations that did not occur, according to the indictment.

Three men who bilked thousands of people out of millions of dollars in schemes operated from Hagerstown were sentenced to prison in Baltimore Thursday. John Thomas Polk, 39, of Dallas, was sentenced to 51 months in prison without parole by U.S. District Court Judge Frederick Motz, according to Hagerstown FBI Agent Barry O'Neill, who testified at the hearing. He also was ordered to pay $2 million in restitution and a $250,000 fine, O'Neill said. David C. Bowen, 36, also of Dallas, was sentenced to 18 months in prison without parole and ordered to pay $250,000 in restitution, O'Neill said.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - A Martinsburg man who also has worked as a West Virginia State Police sergeant in Jefferson County pleaded guilty Dec. 6 in U.S. District Court to one count of an indictment charging him with mail fraud, according to U.S. Attorney Thomas E. Johnston and a former state police official. David Delbert Forman, 37, of 3527 Greensburg Road, made a false insurance claim that his automobile was hit by a deer, Johnston said. In fact, Forman's automobile was damaged when he purchased it, Johnston said in a press release.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - A sentencing hearing for a former West Virginia State Police sergeant previously convicted of mail fraud got under way Tuesday in U.S. District Court. But District Judge Frederick P. Stamp Jr. halted the hearing for George William Bradshaw III because he said the process was taking longer than he expected. Other cases were being handled in court Tuesday and Stamp told lawyers in the Bradshaw case that he needed to reschedule the hearing to allow more time for it. Bradshaw was convicted of mail fraud in August 2006 after U.S. Attorney Paul T. Camilletti had witnesses repeatedly dissect at least 23 "questioned" documents that investigators suspected were altered by Bradshaw while he was a Martinsburg state police commander.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - A retired West Virginia State Police sergeant on trial for mail fraud was a "victim of circumstance" and federal prosecutors have no proof he took money from the Martinsburg detachment he once supervised, the former officer's attorney told jurors Tuesday during opening statements. Craig B. Manford's remarks on behalf of his client, George William Bradshaw III of Martinsburg, followed those of assistant U.S. Attorney Paul T. Camilletti, who used a computer-aided presentation to simplify what procedural actions the prosecutor claimed were manipulated by Bradshaw for personal financial gain.

MARTINSBURG, W.VA. - A former West Virginia State Police detachment commander was sentenced by a federal judge Tuesday to serve 15 months in prison and pay $10,179 in restitution. A jury last year convicted George William Bradshaw III, 59, of Martinsburg, of mail fraud. The former Martinsburg detachment commander will be placed on three years of supervised release after serving the prison sentence, determined by district Judge Frederick P. Stamp Jr. at the U.S. Courthouse in Martinsburg.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - A sentencing hearing for a former West Virginia State Police sergeant previously convicted of mail fraud got under way Tuesday in U.S. District Court. But District Judge Frederick P. Stamp Jr. halted the hearing for George William Bradshaw III because he said the process was taking longer than he expected. Other cases were being handled in court Tuesday and Stamp told lawyers in the Bradshaw case that he needed to reschedule the hearing to allow more time for it. Bradshaw was convicted of mail fraud in August 2006 after U.S. Attorney Paul T. Camilletti had witnesses repeatedly dissect at least 23 "questioned" documents that investigators suspected were altered by Bradshaw while he was a Martinsburg state police commander.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - A post-trial motion to acquit retired West Virginia State Police Sgt. George William Bradshaw III of a mail fraud conviction last month was denied Wednesday by U.S. District Judge W. Craig Broadwater. After hearing arguments by Bradshaw's attorney, B. Craig Manford, and rebuttal from assistant U.S. Attorney Paul T. Camilletti, Broadwater concluded that he was satisfied the government had met a "three element test" applied in the case. "I'm not going to say this was a perfect prosecution," said Broadwater, adding the government's case against Bradshaw wasn't "textbook" and that it did have some "warts.

MARTINSBURG, W.VA. A post-trial motion to acquit retired West Virginia State Police Sgt. George William Bradshaw III of a mail fraud conviction last month was denied Wednesday by U.S. District Judge W. Craig Broadwater. After hearing arguments by Bradshaw's attorney, B. Craig Manford, and rebuttal from assistant U.S. Attorney Paul T. Camilletti, Broadwater concluded that he was satisfied the government had met a "three element test" applied in the case. "I'm not going to say this was a perfect prosecution," said Broadwater, adding the government's case against Bradshaw wasn't "textbook" and that it did have some "warts.

MARTINSBURG, W.VA. - A former West Virginia State Police sergeant was found guilty Friday of mail fraud in U.S. District Court in Martinsburg and could be sentenced to 20 years in prison and fined $250,000. George William Bradshaw III, 58, of 614 E. Moler Ave. in Martinsburg, appeared relatively calm after the verdict was announced about 3:15 p.m. and even comforted a family member who couldn't hold back tears. The verdict - whihc came after more than three hours of deliberations - concluded five days of proceedings that featured testimony by at least 16 current and former officers with the agency.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - Fifteen current or former West Virginia State Police officers testified Wednesday in the federal government's mail fraud case against retired Martinsburg detachment commander George William Bradshaw III, but none of them directly implicated him. But assistant U.S. Attorney Paul T. Camilletti appeared to use their testimony to repeatedly show jurors seated for the trial in Martinsburg how Bradshaw, of 614 E. Moler Ave. in...

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - A retired West Virginia State Police sergeant on trial for mail fraud was a "victim of circumstance" and federal prosecutors have no proof he took money from the Martinsburg detachment he once supervised, the former officer's attorney told jurors Tuesday during opening statements. Craig B. Manford's remarks on behalf of his client, George William Bradshaw III of Martinsburg, followed those of assistant U.S. Attorney Paul T. Camilletti, who used a computer-aided presentation to simplify what procedural actions the prosecutor claimed were manipulated by Bradshaw for personal financial gain.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - A jury of 10 women and four men, including two alternates, was seated Monday in Martinsburg to consider the federal government's case of a former West Virginia State Police sergeant charged with mail fraud. The trial for George William Bradshaw III, of 614 E. Moler Ave., is expected to begin at 8:30 a.m. today in U.S. District Court, with opening statements by U.S. Attorney Paul T. Camilletti. The jurors were selected from a pool of 46 for a trial that Judge W. Craig Broadwater said could take as many as three days to complete, "if everything went perfectly.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - A former West Virginia State Police sergeant who was indicted last year on a charge of mail fraud following an audit of the Martinsburg state police detachment's evidence room is set to face trial in a little less than two weeks. George William Bradshaw III, of 614 E. Moler Ave., will face trial beginning July 31 in U.S. District Court in Martinsburg, attorneys in the case said in a hearing in U.S. District Court Monday afternoon. U.S. Attorney Paul Camilletti told District Judge Craig Broadwater that he expects to use 25 witnesses and that the trial could last about four days.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - A former West Virginia State Police sergeant was sentenced Monday in U.S. District Court to one year of probation and ordered to pay restitution in connection with a mail fraud case, U.S. Attorney Thomas E. Johnston said. David Forman, 37, of 3527 Greensburg Road, Martinsburg, pleaded guilty in December 2005 to one count of an indictment charging him with mail fraud. Forman made a false insurance claim that his automobile was hit by a deer, but Forman's automobile was damaged when he purchased it, Johnston said.