Hyattsville former police officer convicted in $18,000 relief fraud case

A former Metropolitan Police Department officer who lived in Hyattsville was convicted of fraudulently obtaining more than $18,000 in taxpayer-funded Covid-era disaster relief, giving Prince George’s County a local face in a long-running pandemic accountability story. Prosecutors said Roberto Adams, 39, was found guilty by a federal jury in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia after about a day and a half of deliberation.

The conviction matters beyond the dollar figure because Adams once wore a badge in Washington, D.C., while living in one of Prince George’s County’s most recognizable communities. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro announced the case, which centered on one count of wire fraud tied to relief money meant for households, workers and small businesses hit hard by the pandemic.

Federal officials have treated COVID-era fraud as a major enforcement issue long after the immediate crisis faded. In a nationwide sweep, the Justice Department said its pandemic-fraud efforts have included 718 enforcement actions and criminal charges against 371 defendants, with more than $836 million in alleged COVID-19 fraud. Adams’ case adds a relatively small but symbolically sharp example: more than $18,000 diverted from aid intended for people in financial distress.

For Prince George’s County residents, the conviction cuts close to home because it links public trust, law enforcement and misuse of emergency aid. A former police officer is expected to enforce the law, not exploit a federal relief system built to keep people afloat. The case lands as another reminder that pandemic money continues to echo through federal courtrooms, years after the programs were created.

It is also not the first time the Metropolitan Police Department has been tied to pandemic relief prosecutions. Earlier Justice Department cases involving MPD personnel included a fraud scheme built around at least $18,350 in Paycheck Protection Program loans. Together, those cases show that federal prosecutors are still working through the fallout from Covid-era aid abuse, and that the scrutiny now reaches directly into local institutions and the people who once served them.