Former Baltimore City Schools officer sentenced for $215,000 overtime fraud

A former Baltimore City Schools police detective who controlled overtime scheduling was sentenced to one year and one day in federal prison after admitting he stole more than $215,000 from the school system through overtime fraud.

Lawrence Earl Smith, Jr., 52, of Perry Hall, was sentenced Wednesday, April 15, 2026, by U.S. District Judge Stephanie A. Gallagher in downtown Baltimore. The sentence also includes three years of supervised release after prison, along with restitution that must repay $215,362 to Baltimore City Schools and $61,233 to the Internal Revenue Service.

The case goes beyond one employee’s theft. Smith worked for Baltimore City School Police starting in 2005 and was promoted to detective in 2016. Prosecutors said he was later put in charge of the School Police Overtime Unit, giving him authority over overtime coordination and scheduling, including his own. That access, federal prosecutors said, allowed him to assign himself overtime shifts that were not actually worked, diverting money that should have supported school operations, legitimate safety coverage and the city’s students.

Smith pleaded guilty in October 2025 to federal wire fraud and tax evasion. The indictment, returned Sept. 7, 2023, said the fraudulent overtime was tied to work during the COVID-19 pandemic at testing sites, food distribution sites and emergency response duties. Prosecutors also said Smith submitted false W-4 forms and failed to file state and federal income tax returns for 2017, 2019 and 2020, helping him evade more than $60,000 in federal income taxes.

The case drew wider attention after Project Baltimore reported in 2023 that Facebook Live videos appeared to show Smith boating, coaching football and vacationing during times his overtime logs suggested he was on duty. FOX45 later reported that Baltimore City Schools kept paying Smith for nearly a year after his arrest while he remained on paid administrative leave. The school system has said the allegations were unacceptable and damaged trust with employees who follow the rules.

Baltimore City Schools has also said it wants Smith to repay an additional $111,397 that was paid while he was on leave after his arrest. That means the financial damage tied to the case stretches well beyond the original overtime fraud, raising new questions about how the district approved overtime, who reviewed the payments and how long the problem went undetected.

The fallout did not stop in Baltimore City. Later reporting showed Harford County Public Schools hired Smith as a long-term substitute in December 2024 and then as a full-time teacher at Edgewood Middle in August 2025, even as his criminal case moved forward. For Baltimore taxpayers and parents, the sentencing closed one chapter but left a larger lesson about oversight inside a school system that was supposed to be protecting every payroll dollar.