Nathaniel T. Oaks (born October 19, 1946) is an American politician from

Baltimore City, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was d ...

. He was a longtime member of the Maryland General Assembly, serving as a member of the

Maryland House of Delegates The Maryland House of Delegates is the lower house of the legislature of the State of Maryland. It consists of 141 delegates elected from 47 districts. The House of Delegates Chamber is in the Maryland State House on State Circle in Annapolis, ...

from 1983 to 1989 and again from 1995 to February 2017, when he resigned to take a seat in the

Maryland State Senate The Maryland Senate, sometimes referred to as the Maryland State Senate, is the upper house of the General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Maryland. Composed of 47 senators elected from an equal number of constituent single- ...

. Oaks remained in the state Senate until March 29, 2018, when he resigned from office on the same day he pleaded guilty to federal

corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense which is undertaken by a person or an organization which is entrusted in a position of authority, in order to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's personal gain. Corruption m ...

charges.

Background

Born in

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

, Oaks attended

Edmondson High School Edmondson-Westside High School is a public high school located in the southwest area known as Edmondson Village of Baltimore, Maryland, United States. The school is made up of two buildings, the Edmondson Building (located on Athol Avenue) which ...

, the University of Baltimore, Towson State College and graduated from Morgan State University with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

in business in 1974.

Maryland legislature

First arrest

Oaks was a member of the House of Delegates from 1983 to 1989 when he automatically forfeited his seat after being convicted of theft charges for $10,000 for double-billing expenses to the State in his official capacity and to his campaign fund. After a losing bid to regain office in 1990, Oaks was re-elected in 1994 when several incumbent delegates retired.

Legislative notes

*Co-sponsored HB 860 (Baltimore City Public Schools Construction and Revitalization Act of 2013). Signed by the Governor on May 16, 2013, the new law approved 1.1 billion dollars to construct new schools in Baltimore City.

Election results

*2006 Primary Race for Maryland House of Delegates – District 41 ::Voters to choose three: :

Appointed senator

Governor

Larry Hogan Lawrence Joseph Hogan Jr. (born May 25, 1956) is an American politician and businessman serving as the 62nd governor of Maryland since 2015. A moderate member of the Republican Party, he was secretary of appointments under Maryland governor Bo ...

appointed Oaks to the

in 2017 when

Lisa Gladden Lisa Adrienne Gladden (born October 6, 1964) is an American politician from Maryland and a member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party. She formerly served in the Maryland State Senate, representing Maryland's District 41 in ...

retired due to illness.

Second arrest and resignation

In May 2017, State Senator Oaks was indicted in

U.S. District Court The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district, which each cover one U.S. state or, in some cases, a portion of a state. Each district cou ...

on nine counts of

wire fraud Mail fraud and wire fraud are terms used in the United States to describe the use of a physical or electronic mail system to fraud, defraud another, and are Federal crime in the United States, federal crimes there. Jurisdiction is claimed by the ...

, fraud, and bribery in connection with an influence-peddling scheme. In November 2017, Oaks was additionally charged with obstruction of justice, relating to "an allegation that Oaks sabotaged another investigation by tipping off the target." On March 29, 2018, Oaks resigned his state Senate seat, and hours later pleaded guilty to two wire fraud charges and admitted that he had made "corrupt use of his office in a bribery scheme." The remaining charges against him were dismissed. Although federal prosecutors asked for a 5 year prison sentence, on July 17, 2018, Oaks was formally sentenced to three and a half years in prison. U.S. District Judge Richard Bennett found Oaks guilty on one count of wire fraud and one count of honest services wire fraud after he signed a plea agreement early 2018 confirming he had accepted a bribe from a disguised FBI informant and agreed to help defraud a federal housing agency. Oaks was ordered to pay a $30,000 fine and perform 80 hours of community service. It was reported in June 2020 that Oaks was granted compassionate release from prison due to poor health amid the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

after serving about half of his sentence.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oaks, Nathaniel T. 1946 births Living people 20th-century African-American people 21st-century African-American politicians 21st-century American politicians African-American state legislators in Maryland Maryland politicians convicted of crimes Democratic Party Maryland state senators Democratic Party members of the Maryland House of Delegates Morgan State University alumni Politicians convicted of mail and wire fraud Politicians from Baltimore Towson University alumni