Karl Granzow Jr., former PGFD deputy chief, admits extortion & tax evasion. Raid on fire department office lead to arrest of County Executive Jack Johnson.
September, 2008 raid
More STATter911.com coverage of Karl Granzow Jr.
More details from The Washington Post.
When Lt. Col. Karl Granzow Jr.'s office at the headquarters of the Prince George's County Fire/EMS Department in Largo, Maryland was raided by the FBI in September, 2008 we were lead to believe two things by various sources: this was connected to a development project known as Greenbelt Station (which at one time was to include a fire station); the raids were just a stopping off point on the trail that would bring about the downfall of Prince Georges' County Executive Jack Johnson.
Today, almost three years later, comes word that Karl Granzow entered guilty pleas in March as part of the same corruption probe that resulted in Johnson's arrest. Granzow retired from PGFD in April, 2009.
From Andrea Noble, The Washington Times:
The guilty plea of a retired Prince George’s County fire official was unsealed Monday in federal court, linking him to the large-scale corruption probe that has taken down developers, public officials and police officers in the county over the last several months.
Karl Granzow, 46, pleaded guilty in secret to conspiring to commit extortion and to income tax evasion on March 11. Mr. Granzow, a former lieutenant colonel in the county fire department, admitted in his guilty plea to partnering with county developers for more than 10 years to bribe public officials for development favors related to the Greenbelt Station development project.
From Lizz Essley, The Washington Examiner:
Granzow, who was an official responsible for the fire department's Management Services Command at the time of the briberies, had ownership interests in Greenbelt Metropark, a company trying to build a mixed-use project near the Greenbelt Metro Station.
For more than 10 years, Granzow and co-conspirators offered state and local officials money, meals, drinks, trip expenses, campaign contributions, hotel rooms, airline tickets and more in exchange for rulings that would favor their development projects, according to Granzow's guilty plea filed under seal on March 30.
From the AP:
He also admitted bribing public officials in exchange for acts that benefited a development near the Greenbelt Metro station. Granzow’s co-conspirators, developers Patrick Ricker and Daniel Colton, have also pleaded guilty. Their pleas were unsealed after former County Executive Jack Johnson pleaded guilty to corruption.
Federal sentencing guidelines call for Granzow to receive between 2 ½ and three years in prison. No sentencing date has been scheduled.
