Former Dunbar football coach gets year in federal prison for stealing $215K through overtime

Lawrence E. Smith, the decorated former Dunbar High football coach, was sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison on Wednesday afternoon in U.S. District Court for stealing $215,000 in overtime pay as a city schools police officer.

Federal prosecutors were seeking two years in prison for the eight-time state championship-winning coach who pleaded guilty to wire fraud in October, calling his conduct “particularly egregious.” He admitted to taking pay for thousands of hours he did not work, including time spent on his boat or out of state on vacation, as well as not paying taxes for years.

Smith’s defense attorney, David Walsh-Little, asked for a sentence of probation with home detention, saying smith had suffered enough with the loss of his roles at the school as well as public humiliation. He said prosecutors were overreaching as members of the school community, including Dunbar’s current principal, stood up to support Smith.

“It was more than a job for him,” Walsh-Little said. “It was a vocation. It was a mission, and that’s been upended for him.”

While calling his conduct “fairly egregious,” Judge Stephanie A. Gallagher’s sentence fell below a recommended guideline range of 15 to 21 months, explaining that Smith had shown he was taking steps to continue the good that he had done for the community.

A sentence of a year and a day, as opposed to just a year, triggers a defendant’s ability to earn good-time credits, increasing the possibility of early release.

Smith’s case has been dragging on for years; the fraudulent overtime pay dates to the COVID-19 pandemic, and prosecutors said subpoenas were first served on the school system in August 2022. Smith was indicted a year later, in September 2023, and pleaded guilty in October 2025.

Smith, who did not address Gallagher at Wednesday’s hearing, told her earlier in a letter that he had carried too many responsibilities “and allowed myself to be stretched too thin.”

“In doing so, I failed to maintain the level of structure and attention that I should have,” he said. “Since then, I have taken clear steps to correct my shortcomings.”

Character letters were submitted on Smith’s behalf from an array of supporters, including former Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young, state Sen. Cory McCray — and even Dunbar’s principal, Yetunde Reeves.

In her letter of support, Reeves wrote that she recalled making home visits with Smith to students they were concerned about, and a time when he rendered aid to a student who had been shot. She said he made a “remarkable” personal investment to students in need, providing meals and financial support.

“Dr. Smith is an exceptional human being, and I have no doubt he will continue to make a profound impact wherever he serves,” Reeves wrote. “I wholeheartedly and without reservation offer my support for him.”

But federal prosecutors say he brazenly stole money from the school system, using his position as the coordinator of overtime pay to staff himself on shifts he didn’t work all while posting on social media that he was on vacation or out on his boat during such times.

The city school system recently told Smith it wants to claw back $111,400 he was paid after being placed on suspension and before being suspended without pay. And prosecutors say they uncovered that Smith falsified paperwork from the school system and misrepresented his assets a decade ago when trying to obtain a mortgage.

“The Court should put an end to the defendant’s string of criminal conduct and sentence him to twenty-four months imprisonment,” prosecutors Adeyemi Adenrele and Jared Beim wrote in their sentencing memorandum.

In addition to being a championship football coach, Smith worked as a city schools police officer. He was in charge of the police force’s overtime unit and served as a liaison between school police and other organizations, including the Baltimore Police Department and the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore City.

Prosecutors said that investigators initially learned from open-source data that Smith had earned more than $67,000 in overtime pay during the first year of the pandemic, then more than $94,000 the following year.

An investigation revealed that he was often at his residence in Baltimore County, other times in Grand Rapids, Michigan, or on his boat. “Brazen” Facebook posts showed him out on the water and on vacation during periods he claimed he was working.

“While millions of people were dying of COVID-19 across the globe, Smith was taking advantage of the opportunity to steal overtime hours that he, in fact, never worked,” prosecutors wrote.

In addition to the charged conduct, prosecutors dinged Smith for “providing misleading responses” on applications to work for Harford County schools, not disclosing details of his pending case. But Gallagher said she there wasn’t enough information about that to hold it against him in sentencing.