Former mayor found guilty of felony theft

Spires was indicted in February and forced to step down from his mayoral position shortly after. He was accused of stealing $2,500 of the taxpayers’ money from town coffers for a family trip to Jamaica in July 2006, six months after assuming the mayor’s office, by submitting a false reimbursement request to the town for private investigative services. Sentencing has been set for 10 a.m. Nov. 8. Spires could face six months in jail.

He was also found guilty of ‘‘perverting” public trust by knowingly submitting false invoices.

However, Geter dismissed five of the seven charges against Spires, including embezzlement, counterfeiting, forgery, uttering and attempt to commit theft. She said the state failed to prove those counts against Spires and that the town’s bookkeeping was ‘‘confusing and controverted.”

Defense attorney William Brennan, of Brennan Sullivan & McKenna LLP law firm in Greenbelt, argued the town had other financial issues.

Geter agreed she thought there was a limited amount of control of the town’s finances.

In a recorded statement, Spires told state investigators that some of the expenses he incurred included 19 trips to Annapolis to meet lawmakers during a one-month period. But Steven Trostle, senior assistant state prosecutor, told the judge those trips happened at a time when the assembly was not in session, between June 29 and Aug. 31, 2006.

‘‘Justice was served and that’s about it,” Quincy Hines, the present mayor of Forest Heights, said after the verdict. ‘‘Hopefully we won’t go down that road again.”

Maryland State Prosecutor for Prince George’s County Robert Rohrbaugh, said ‘‘We are pleased with the guilty verdict. We think it is appropriate.” But, he added, ‘‘There was substantial evidence for all the counts, but we respect the court verdict.”

Brennan was joyous some charges against his client were dropped by the judge.

Spires would not comment on the case.

E-mail Ahmar Mustikhan at amustikhan@gazette.net.