Baltimore Comptroller Faces Theft Charges

BALTIMORE —  The city comptroller was indicted Friday on charges of misconduct and felony theft for allegedly paying $25,000 to a fictitious employee and civic group, and steering a city lease to a building she owned.

Jacqueline McLean is accused of providing false invoices in payments to Michele McCloud and Resources for Women “knowing them to be fictitious payees created by her,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

The city Board of Estimates, on which McLean sat, approved a contract in September, 1992, to hire McCloud to write news releases and do clerical work for $21.73 an hour. The contract was renewed last year, even though McCloud was a mystery to her supervisor.

Checks for McCloud were sent to a hair salon owned by the comptroller’s sister.

A second indictment charges McLean with misconduct in office for securing approval of the $1-million city lease for a building she and her husband owned.