Debt Collection Agency Owner Sentenced to Prison Over Process Serving

Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler today announced that Kevin Patrick Fitzgerald, 44, was sentenced in Baltimore County Circuit Court on his earlier conviction for conspiracy, perjury, subornation of perjury and obstruction of justice in connection with a massive scheme to defraud the District Court of Maryland in Towson. The Honorable Michael J. Finifter sentenced Fitzgerald, of Reisterstown, to serve three years of a ten year sentence, $20,000 in fines and five years supervised probation.

Fitzgerald was convicted of creating and filing hundreds of fraudulent affidavits of service claiming that his company, Patrick Investigations, of Towson, had made service of process in lawsuits brought against customers who owed money to a Frederick-based musical instrument rental company. When the customers failed to appear in court on the scheduled trial dates, Fitzgerald obtained default judgments against them, based on the fraudulent affidavits of service.

In pronouncing sentence, Judge Finifter characterized the Defendant’s actions as, “a major, massive scheme to defraud the District Court, consumers and his own client, . . . resulting in a substantial interference with the administration of justice.”

As part of the plea agreement, Patrick Investigations surrendered its debt collection license. In making today’s announcement, Attorney General Gansler thanked Assistant Attorney General Carolyn Henneman for her work on the case.