A Baltimore police officer who overcame the odds growing up in West Baltimore to patrol his old neighborhood, was indicted Friday on charges of insurance fraud and attempted felony theft, the state attorney general said.
Hikeen D. Crampton Sr., 30, of Rosedale, is accused of fraudulently claiming in late 2008 that his Cadillac Escalade had been stolen when he had traded it in for another vehicle. The indictment follows an investigation by the Regional Auto Theft Task Force, the insurance fraud division of the Maryland Insurance Administration and the attorney general's office.
The charges were filed in Frederick County, where the claim was filed, said Shanetta J. Paskel, an official with the attorney general's office.
Crampton was profiled in a front-page article in The Baltimore Sun in 2001 after he graduated from the Baltimore Police Academy and requested a patrol assignment in his old neighborhood, a notorious drug zone. The youngest of 10 children, he graduated from Douglass High School and managed a McDonald's before joining the police academy.
"Some people ask me, 'Why do you want to come back?' " Crampton said at the time. "I want to help my community."
He received an award from Baltimore County last year after he observed the robbery of an armored car while off duty and caught the suspect, holding him until county officers arrived. In 2005, while working plainclothes in the Western District, he also arrested one of the stars of the infamous "Stop Snitching" video.
Anthony Guglielmi, a city police spokesman, said the Police Department learned of the allegations in June, when Crampton was suspended with pay.
"The allegations are concerning, but we have an obligation to see the system through and we're going to reserve comment until this is over," Guglielmi said.
Attempts to reach Crampton for comment were unsuccessful.
An arraignment has been scheduled for Sept. 25.
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