Pugh aide sentenced to prison in Healthy Holly scandal

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An aide to disgraced Mayor Catherine Pugh has been sentenced to federal prison and ordered to pay restitution for his role in the Healthy Holly book scandal as well as other crimes.

Gary Brown, who nearly became a member of the House of Delegates, was sentenced in U.S.District Court in Greenbelt to 27 months in prison and four years of supervised probation. He was also ordered by U.S. District Court Judge Barbara Chasanow to pay $14,000 in restitution. 

Prosecutors requested Brown receive three years in prison and nearly $400,000 in restitution.

Chasanow, in handing down the sentence, said Brown was a willing participant in the crimes along with Pugh and not merely an underling following orders.

“This was not some mere mule of a drug courier,” said Chasanow.

Brown was ordered to report to serve his sentence on Nov. 2.

Brown worked for Pugh for eight years, first as a legislative aide when she was a state senator and later in the Mayor’s office.

During that time, and often while working his government jobs, Brown was playing a key role in four separate criminal enterprises including two directly involving Pugh, according to prosecutors.

Pugh is currently serving a three-year sentence in a federal prison in Alabama for her role in the Healthy Holly scam. 

In court filings, prosecutors said Brown along with Pugh were the only two people involved in the Healthy Holly book scandal that netted Pugh $850,000. Pugh delegated nearly all operational responsibilities to him and prosecutors said Brown “was her right-hand man from start to finish.”

Brown embraced that role and did everything from soliciting buyer and draft invoices to picking up and depositing checks and contacting illustrators, according to court records.

Related to that, Brown aided Pugh in the second scheme, one in which the pair illegally funneled $35,800 into Pugh’s campaign for mayor. Prosecutors called Brown the soon-to-be mayor’s “bagman.” the money from the Healthy Holly scheme was deposited into Pugh’s campaign account under the name of straw donors.

Brown nearly ascended to the House of Delegates to fill a vacancy but that nomination was rejected when state prosecutors filed charges.

Brown then helped cover up the crime, federal prosecutors said. Later, when he was charged with campaign finance violations by the state prosecutor, Pugh paid $18,000 towards his legal expenses. He also helped conceal the donations by creating false tax returns based in part on fake business records.

Brown entered an Alford Plea on the state charges, not acknowledging guilt but that the state had enough evidence to convict him. He did not out Pugh’s part in the scheme. Pugh kept him on her staff two more years until her City Hall offices were raided by federal investigators in 2019. 

Prosecutors said Brown also used his position as head of a nonprofit job training center in Baltimore to create an $80,000 off the books job for Roslyn Wedington and helped her evade paying taxes on five years of earnings. Wedington has pleaded guilty and awaits sentencing. 

Finally, Brown earned money as a freelance tax preparer between 2016 and 2018. Prosecutors said Brown was paid for helping his clients file fraudulent returns based on bogus documentation to minimize taxable income and maximize refunds.

Prosecutors and Brown’s defense attorney alternatively portrayed Brown as a political opportunist eager to climb the ladder to power and a man who came from a poor home that often lacked electricity or enough food to eat who grew to be a person who wanted to help others and was awed by Pugh.

“Mr. Brown was a dedicated civil servant

But while prosecutors painted him as a co-conspirator and “bagman”, Barry Pollack, Brown’s attorney, said his client was Pugh’s “minion.”

“Everything was done at the direction of Mayor Pugh for the benefit of Mayor Pugh,” said Pollack.

Chasanow rejected that argument.

“Whether you call it minion, partner, whatever, you were a full-fledged criminal,” Chasanow said, addressing Brown before handing down her sentencing.