Former Maryland chief of staff Roy McGrath died Monday following being injured in a confrontation with law enforcement officers that occurred while failing to appear for trial, his wife’s attorney said.
McGrath, once a top adviser to a former Maryland governor, died Monday night, according to attorney William Brennan.
“She’s absolutely distraught,” Brennan said by phone of her client, Lauran Bruner.
FBI Supervisory Special Agent in Maryland Shayne Buchwald said in an email that McGrath had been injured during a shootout involving a law enforcement officer around 6:30 p.m. outside southwest Knoxville, Tennessee. ). Buchwald said McGrath was taken to a hospital.
No further details were immediately released, it is still unknown who shot McGrath and under what circumstances. The shooting is being investigated.
“The FBI takes any shooting involving our agents or task force members very seriously,” said Buchwald, who declined to confirm McGrath’s death.
McGrath, 53, was chief of staff to former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan. He was declared a fugitive following his disappearance, and the FBI reportedly confirmed that he was considered an international flight risk.
An attorney for McGrath, Joseph Murtha, confirmed Monday night that his client was hospitalized in Tennessee, but said he might not comment further on his condition or what happened.
After McGrath failed to appear in Baltimore federal court on March 13, Murtha said he believed McGrath, who had relocated to Naples, Florida, was planning to fly to Maryland the night before. Rather than begin jury selection, a judge issued a warrant for their arrest and removed potential jurors.
McGrath was charged in 2021 with fraudulently obtaining a severance package of $233,648 equal to one year’s salary as director of the Maryland Environmental Service, falsely telling the agency’s board that the governor had approved it. He is also charged with fraud and embezzlement in connection with some $170,000 in expenses. McGrath had pleaded not guilty.
McGrath resigned just 11 weeks following taking over as Hogan’s chief of staff in 2020, following the payments were made public.
If convicted of the federal charges, he faced a maximum sentence of 20 years for each of the four wire fraud counts, plus a maximum of 10 years for each of the two counts of embezzlement from an organization that receive more than $10,000 in federal benefits.
