The previous chief of employees to ex-Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan died after he was captured Monday in Tennessee, practically three weeks after the one-time aide failed to seem in federal court docket final month on fraud and different prices, authorities and his lawyer stated.
Roy Mcgrath, 53, suffered a gunshot wound and succumbed to accidents, lawyer Joseph Murtha stated in an e mail.
It wasn’t clear if the damage was self-inflicted or occurred throughout an alternate of gunfire with FBI brokers, Murtha stated.
An FBI spokesman stated an “agent-involved capturing” continues to be below evaluate however declined to remark additional on who fired the deadly shot. McGrath suffered the damage throughout his arrest in Knoxville at 6:30 p.m., stated the spokesman, Shayne Buchwald.
“The lack of Roy’s life is an absolute tragedy,” Murtha stated. “I feel it will be important for me to say that Roy by no means wavered about his innocence.”
McGrath failed to seem for trial on federal wire fraud, theft and falsification prices on March 13. Two weeks later, the FBI supplied a $10,000 reward for info resulting in his arrest, saying McGrath was a fugitive and a world flight threat.
McGrath served as Hogan’s deputy chief of employees in 2015 earlier than the previous governor appointed him to steer the Maryland Environmental Service in December 2016.
He briefly returned as Hogan’s chief of staff in 2020 before resigning amid a backlash over a big severance payout from the service.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Maryland accused McGrath of utilizing his place on the non-profit public company — which gives waste administration, recycling and different providers to authorities companies and the personal sector — to complement himself by fraudulently claiming that Hogan had authorized the payout.
Prosecutors in federal district in Maryland additionally accused McGrath of illegally recording personal conversations with officers, falsifying time sheets and directing service funds to a museum the place he was a member and to pay for tuition advantages.
Zoë Richards contributed.
