Manhunt on for onetime high Larry Hogan aide after trial no-show

A manhunt is underway for the earlier chief of workers to ex-Maryland Republican Gov. Larry Hogan after he failed to look in federal court docket docket Monday for the start of his corruption trial.

US District Judge Deborah Boardman issued ​an arrest warrant for Roy McGrath when he ​was a no-show at on the Baltimore courthouse.

McGrath’s lawyer, Joseph Murtha, said he closing talked to his shopper on Sunday — as soon as that they had what he known as a “substantively productive conversation” — and anticipated to see McGrath in court docket docket.

Murtha instructed the Baltimore Sun he hasn’t been able to attain McGrath​, 53,​ since Sunday night, when McGrath was scheduled to board a plane ​near his dwelling in Florida for ​a flight to ​Maryland.

“I have been in contact with [McGrath’s wife] Laura and she shared her concern for Roy’s safety,” Murtha instructed the newspaper in a textual content material message. “She has requested that the media respect her need for privacy at this very difficult time.”

On Tuesday, regulation enforcement brokers had been scouring the neighborhood and residential of McGrath in Naples, Fla., and the US Marshals Service has declared him a “fugitive.”

McGrath ​faces a slew of costs​​ that embrace wire fraud, ​embezzlement, ​misconduct in office and improper use of state funds​.​

He is accused of falsely arranging a ​$233,647 severance charge ​– equal to a minimum of one 12 months’s wage — ​when he stepped down as head of the Maryland Environmental Service in May 2020.

Prosecutors say McGrath obtained the corporate’s board to approve the charge by falsely telling them Hogan was aware of the severance bundle and had licensed of it.

McGrath served as a high aide to Hogan, a Republican, for about 11 weeks sooner than resigning in August 2020 when media opinions surfaced about his severance. He moreover faces fraud and embezzlement costs associated to roughly $170,000 in payments.

If convicted of the federal costs, McGrath faces a most sentence of 20 years in federal jail for each of 4 counts of wire fraud; and a most of 10 years in federal jail for each of two counts of embezzling funds from an organization receiving larger than $10,000 in federal benefits.