Two former Maryland police officers are facing decades in federal prison after being convicted of arson and fraud.
Federal prosecutors allege that Philip James Dupree, 41, of Pikesville, and Mark Ross Johnson, Jr., 38, of Camp Springs, conspired to commit two distinct fraud schemes.
Dupree is a former Fairmount Heights police officer, and Johnson previously worked for the Prince George’s County Police Department.
In November 2018, Johnson’s Ford F450 truck was suffering mechanical and electrical issues.
According to the feds, he and Dupree planned to fire the truck in order to recoup insurance funds.
Dupree, for his part, filed a fraudulent police complaint, claiming that he “discovered” Johnson’s truck on fire while on duty in Fairmount Heights.
Johnson, in turn, utilized the report to submit an insurance claim.
What the two did not reveal was that they had discussed the truck over the phone for around 16 minutes before it was discovered to be on fire.
The insurance company engaged a private investigator to investigate the fire. They discovered that the fire was purposely started in the truck’s passenger compartment.
Despite this, the insurance company was compelled to partially rely on Dupree’s assessment, and Johnson received a $68,000 reimbursement.
That was not it.
Dupree and Johnson then began withdrawing money from their own bank accounts at numerous ATMs, only to fabricate police reports that the money had been “stolen.”
Dupree and Johnson would use the bogus reports to try to get the banks to compensate them for the alleged stolen money.
Prosecutors described one such report as a “complete fake,” with the identity of a “non-existent police officer.”
Dupree’s sentence is scheduled for February 19, followed by Johnson on February 23. The Maryland State Prosecutor indicted Dupree in 2022 for using excessive force and interfering with witnesses.
The conspiracy also involved four other cops, according to the DOJ.
One of them is Michael Owen, who was previously charged with fatally shooting a restrained man inside a Prince George’s County Police vehicle.
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