Ex-Baltimore prosecutor pleads guilty in stalking case, faces prison sentence

A former Baltimore homicide prosecutor who was accused of misusing subpoenas to monitor and stalk romantic partners entered a guilty plea Friday in federal court.

Adam L. Chaudry, 43, pleaded guilty to two felony counts of fraud in connection with obtaining confidential phone records. He faces a maximum of 15 years in federal prison at his sentencing on March 8.

U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett, who accepted the plea, warned Chaudry that he finds the charges “extremely serious.” Federal and state prosecutors alleged that Chaudry used his position as a city prosecutor to subpoena phone records for his romantic partners and other victims dozens of times over several years.

“The notion of a prosecutor abusing his office … in the face of the crime wave we’re facing, for some personal mission, is quite shocking to me,” Bennett said in court.

Chaudry admitted to the allegations in court. He declined to comment as he left the courtroom Friday, as did federal prosecutors.

One of the stalking victims who was present in court also declined to comment.

The federal indictment accused Chaudry of improperly issuing more than 65 grand jury and trial subpoenas between January 2019 and April 2021. The primary target of the subpoenas was Chaudry’s ex-girlfriend, whose relationship with him lasted from 2005 until 2018.

Chaudry used his power as a prosecutor to issue 33 subpoenas for the woman’s telephone records, according to the indictment.

At one point, according to the facts read in federal court, Chaudry used the phone records to create a spreadsheet of personal phone calls the victim had made and received, including one to her obstetrician-gynecologist.

Chaudry also issued six subpoenas for the phone records of a second woman with whom he had a romantic relationship from 2017 until 2020, prosecutors allege.

Three other alleged victims whose phone records were accessed were friends of the first woman, according to the indictment. Chaudry was also accused of using personal information about the woman to request information about her stays at a hotel that appeared in her phone records.

He also subpoenaed jail calls between the second woman and one of her relatives who was incarcerated, the indictment charges, and sent a letter on Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office letterhead requesting 911 calls the woman had made, claiming the records were related to a law enforcement inquiry.

None of the people whose records were subpoenaed were under investigation by the Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office.

Chaudry wrote that the subpoenas were related to a “special investigation in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City” and did not provide an identifying case number, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in court documents.

Chaudry was first charged in state court by the Office of the State Prosecutor, but the case was later moved into federal court, where the charges could bring harsher penalties. Chaudry’s federal sentence may be enhanced because he carried out the crimes with the intent to commit stalking.

Deputy State Prosecutor Sarah David, who brought the state charges against Chaudry, was assigned to the federal case as a special assistant U.S. attorney.

Chaudry rejected a plea deal in May that would have allowed him to plead guilty in state court to theft, obtaining phone records without authorization and stalking in exchange for a one-year prison term.

The state charges included allegations that Chaudry repeatedly sent flowers to his first ex-girlfriend’s work and to her mother’s house, including after she asked him to stop. He was also accused of attempting to extort a man by threatening him with prosecution if the man did not pay back $10,000 to a friend of Chaudry’s, according to the indictment. The threat was allegedly conveyed on official letterhead.

Chaudry left the State’s Attorney’s Office in June after an internal investigation, a spokesperson said previously. He had worked as an assistant state’s attorney in the office since 2009 and as a homicide prosecutor since 2015.