Baltimore entrepreneur Lance Lucas was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison on Thursday for bribery of former Maryland state delegate Cheryl Glenn.
Lucas, who became known to the Baltimore tech community through IT training for the unemployed and computers for guns exchange events, previously pleaded guilty to paying $42,500 in bribes to Glenn. Between May 2018 and July 2019, these cash payments were made in exchange for Glenn including specific provisions in legislation that would expand the Cyber Warrior Diversity Program cybersecurity training program developed by Lucas’ Digit All Systems, as well as to help companies with Lucas ties to obtain medical marijuana licenses.
Glenn was previously convicted and received a sentence earlier this summer of two years for bribery and wire fraud.
“As evident in today’s sentencing, public corruption is not merely focused on persons holding public office, but extends to anyone attempting to leverage access to those with influence for personal benefit,” said Jennifer C. Boone, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Baltimore field office, in a news release.
In assuring Glenn that they wouldn’t be caught, Lucas at one point told Glenn, “I’m from Baltimore for real, for real Baltimore. … This is the least illegal thing I’ve ever done. This is like patty-cake compared to the [expletive] in Baltimore City.”
This stands in contrast to his public position as a champion for extending economic opportunity by teaching tech skills to the city’s homeless and unemployed. According to the Baltimore Sun, the sentencing hearing included intonations for lenience from his mother and a woman who said her life was changed by the cybersecurity training program. These were some of the same people Lucas himself told the judge that he let down.
“I know right from wrong, and I will spend the rest of my life trying to make amends,” he said, per the Sun.
Glenn is currently serving a two-year sentence in federal prison.
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