Police Officer Sentenced for Role With Other Officers in Insurance Fraud Scheme

A former Maryland police officer has been sentenced for his role in an auto-insurance fraud scheme that involved several other police officers over several years.

Michael Anthony Owen, Jr., of Accokeek, a former Prince George’s County police officer, was sentenced to six months in federal prison, followed by two years of supervised release, with the first six months served on home detention, for the falsification of records in connection with the scam. The judge also ordered Owen to pay $17,585 to the victim of one of his insurance fraud schemes.

Kelly O. Hayes, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland, announced the sentencing and explained the charges and pleas and sentencing of other participants in a press release.

According to court documents, between August 2018 and February 2020, Owen and Jaron Earl Taylor, of Ft. Washington, Maryland, a former Anne Arundel County police officer, conspired with fellow police officers to engage in mail and wire fraud. Taylor and Owen, along with officers Candace Tyler, of Bowie; Conrad D’Haiti, of La Plata; Davion Percy, of Suitland, and others devised a scheme for insurance companies to pay out the remaining financing costs of unwanted vehicles.

Prosecutors said members of the conspiracy reported fictitious losses to insurers to obtain money or avoid paying off vehicles that were worth less than the amount owed on them. They used their statuses as police officers to assist each other’s claims by writing false police reports. Then they submitted fictitious police reports to insurers to validate the claim.

According to court documents, In August 2018, Owen and Taylor staged the theft of Taylor’s Chevrolet Tahoe. After Taylor filed a fraudulent police report, he and Owen stripped the vehicle and drove it deep into the woods off a Maryland state highway property near Largo. Taylor then made a false claim to the insurer United Services Automobile Association (USAA) for the loss, for which USAA paid out a total of $38,670.

Later, in January 2020, Owen assisted D’Haiti in avoiding payment on the loan balance of a Jaguar XKR. In cooperation with D’Haiti and Percy, Owen devised a scheme to fake the vehicle’s theft. On January 4, D’Haiti parked his Jaguar behind Marlow Heights Shopping Center where Percy worked as police chief. D’Haiti then paid Percy $350 to arrange for another co-conspirator to tow the vehicle and extensively vandalize it for the purpose of creating a total insurance loss.

Tyler subsequently filed the fictitious police report that D’Haiti used to substantiate his claim against Liberty Mutual Insurance. In February 2020, Liberty Mutual paid the Jaguar’s lienholder, Navy Federal Credit Union, $17,585, on the false claim.

Additionally, in January 2020, prosecutors said Owen and Taylor assisted with disposing of an Infiniti sedan to help a co-conspirator avoid making further payments while on extended overseas duty. The co-conspirator gave Taylor $1,000 via CashApp to stage the theft. Taylor then forwarded the money to Owen who filed a false police report with PGPD, stating the vehicle was stolen.

But Owen, Taylor, and others moved the car to the top floor of a Camp Springs, Maryland, apartment-complex parking garage. They removed the vehicle’s license plates and replaced them with different ones. The owner and co-conspirator filed a claim with auto insurer GEICO that was eventually denied on grounds of fraud.

In connection with this scheme, in June 2026, a federal jury found Percy guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud in connection with the auto-insurance fraud scheme. Then in July 2026, the judge sentenced Taylor to three years of probation, with the first five months seed on home detention, and ordered Taylor to pay $38,670 in restitution to USAA. Additionally, Tyler pled guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud, and D’Haiti pled guilty to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud. Percy’s sentencing is scheduled for October 16.

Source: U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland,