BALTIMORE — Two former Maryland Police officers each face decades in federal prison after being convicted of arson and fraud.
Federal prosecutors say Philip James Dupree, 41, of Pikesville, and Mark Ross Johnson, Jr., 38, of Camp Springs, joined forces to commit two separate fraud schemes.
Dupree is a former Fairmount Heights Police officer, while Johnson used to be with the Prince George’s County Police Department.
Back in November 2018 Johnson’s Ford F450 truck was experiencing mechanical and electrical problems.
According to the feds, he and Dupree coordinated to burn the truck in order to recoup insurance money.
For his part, Dupree wrote a false police report saying he "discovered" Johnson's truck burning while on-duty on Fairmount Heights.
Johnson, in turn, used the report to file an insurance claim.
What the two didn't mention, is before the truck was suddenly found burning, they actually talked about it on the phone together for approximately 16 minutes.
The insurance company hired a private investigator to look into the fire. They determined the fire was intentionally set in the passenger compartment of the truck.
Despite this, the insurance company was forced to partially rely on Dupree's report resulting in Johnson getting a $68,000 payout.
That wasn't it.
Dupree and Johnson then began withdrawing money from their own banking accounts at various ATM's only to falsely make up police reports of the money being "stolen."
Together Dupree and Johnson would use the phony reports to try and get the banks to reimbursement them for the so called stolen money.
Prosecutors described one such report as a "complete fake," containing the name of a "non-existent police officer."
Dupree’s sentencing is set for February 19 followed by Johnson on February 23. In 2022 Dupree was also indicted by the Maryland State Prosecutor for excessive force and witness tampering.
Four other officers were also caught up in the scheme, according to the DOJ.
One of them is Michael Owen, who was previously charged with fatally shooting a handcuffed man inside a Prince George's County Police car.
