Ex-Md. Senator Accused of Corruption, Fraud

In exchange for Bromwell's willingness to deliver such favors, the indictment says, Stoffregen arranged for Bromwell to receive payments disguised as salary for his wife at Namco, which was secretly controlled by Poole and Kent. Poole and Kent also performed free or discounted construction work worth $85,000 at Bromwell's residence, the indictment says.

In addition, it says, Poole and Kent awarded a $1.3 million subcontract for the state's Juvenile Justice Center to the now-defunct firm Network Technologies Group, which was paying Bromwell an annual salary of $80,000 to use his influence to help the firm get work.

According to the indictment, after Geraldine Forti stopped working at Namco in 1999, Stoffregen paid her a salary to allow Poole and Kent to use Namco as a front to appear to satisfy minority participation requirements on construction jobs.

Mary Pat Bromwell's salary was also drawn from Namco, the indictment says. Once, to deceive officials who were conducting an on-site inspection to verify Namco's status as a woman-owned business, she posed as the bogus company's chief operating officer, it says.

Poole and Kent said in a statement that Stoffregen resigned in March at the company's request. It said it was cooperating with the government's investigation.

Stoffregen's attorney, Barry Levine, did not return calls seeking comment on the charges.

The charges bring a measure of clarity to rampant speculation in Annapolis, where it has been known for three years that one of the legislature's most colorful figures has been under investigation.

Well over 6 feet tall, loud as a carnival barker and always flamboyantly attired in colorful suits and cowboy boots, Bromwell spent 23 years in the legislature building a broad base of power and using it freely to advance causes, from funding cancer research to passing electricity deregulation.

He often hearkened back to his blue-collar roots, holding forth on the Senate floor in a thick Baltimore drawl as he tried to persuade his colleagues to look out for the working man.

In one memorable scene in 2000, Bromwell lit into then-Sen. Walter M. Baker (D-Cecil) over his promise to retaliate against supporters of a bill intended to protect people from unscrupulous lawyers. Bromwell rose angrily from his seat, according to news accounts. Leaving his desk, Bromwell pointed his index finger at his fellow Democrat and yelled, "Stop being a bully! Stop being a bully! And stop threatening senators!"

After appeals for civility, Bromwell and Baker appeared to make up. Asked what the fuss was all about, Bromwell replied, "Testosterone."

Bromwell was also known to have a soft side, such as when he came to the aid of a cancer charity that needed help saving a bill that would direct state money for breast cancer screening. "That bill was dead until we went to him," said lobbyist Eric Gally. "Today there are underprivileged women in Maryland getting mammograms, and his support was the single most important reason."