Former Executive Director of Havre de Grace Housing Authority Sentenced for Bribery

The former executive director of the Havre de Grace Housing Authority has been sentenced for bribing a public official.

, 63, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge William D. Quarles, Jr. to three years probation, six months of which is to be served in a halfway house.

The Bel Air resident oversaw the Havre de Grace Housing Authority—which manages the city’s Somerset Manor neighborhood, not the entire city, as the title suggests—since 2002.

Robinson was recorded by the FBI and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)—which provided rental subsidies to pay for the expenditures for the 60-unit public housing project Robinson managed—on May 28, 2009 asking a contractor for kickbacks to replace the kitchen faucets at Somerset Manor.

The project was subsequently awarded to the contractor. During a videotaped meeting on June 11, 2009, Robinson met the contractor, who presented the property manager the proposed kickback of $1,200 for the $4,000 project. Robinson, while counting the money, made a joke about how the contractor once shorted him $100 on a prior job. The contractor told authorities Robinson asked for and received kickbacks on projects at Somerset Manor on previous occasions.