Prince George’s bribery conspirator sentenced

The first of the three conspirators involved in bribing public officials to gain their support for a Greenbelt mixed-use project has been sentenced.

Karl Granzow, 47, a retired Prince George's County Fire Department official, was sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court to 18 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release for conspiring to commit extortion and cause false statements to be filed with the Federal Election Commission, plus income tax evasion, according to federal prosecutors.

Granzow of Upper Marlboro along with developers Daniel I. Colton and Patrick Rider, provided gifts, money and in-kind campaign contributions to state and local government officials from 1997 through Sept. 11, 2008, in exchange for approval letters for a detailed site plan regarding the Greenbelt Station project near the Greenbelt Metro station, according to Granzow’s guilty plea last year.