Sudlersville Commission President Charged After Audit Reveals $300,000 Theft Scheme

SUDLERSVILLE, MD - A Sudlersville Town Commissioner has been charged with multiple offenses following an investigation into the town's finances. Jonathan Keith Griffith was charged after an audit uncovered irregularities in the town's water and sewer accounts.

The investigation was led by the Queen Anne's County State's Attorney's Office.

Griffith, who is also a former President of the Town Commission, is accused of withdrawing more than $300,000 in town funds. The alleged activity took place between November 2022 and August 2025.

He now faces three counts of a theft scheme over $100,000. These charges carry a maximum sentence of 20 years and a fine of $25,000.

Additional charges include two counts of a theft scheme involving amounts of $25,000 or under. These carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $15,000 fine. Griffith is also charged with one count of misconduct in office.

The financial discrepancies were identified during an audit conducted by Queen Anne's County. The audit was part of an agreement for the County to acquire the Town of Sudlersville's water and sewer system.

While the County began managing operations in March 2021, it did not assume financial responsibility until June 2025. Suspicious banking activity was noted during the review of finances for the transfer of ownership.

Griffith has served as a Town Commissioner since 2020. He was also an employee of the Queen Anne's County Sanitary District beginning in 2022.

Officials noted that his role with the District did not involve responsibilities for the Sudlersville water and sewer system. He is currently on unpaid administrative leave from the County.

According to the Maryland Judiciary Case Search, Jonathan Keith Griffith was recently sentenced to serve a weekend in jail for a charge of Driving a Vehicle While Impaired by Alcohol.

This charge stems from a June 24, 2025 incident where Griffith was charged with the alcohol related driving offense by the Maryland State Police in Centreville, Maryland.

On December 5, 2025, Judge Lynn Knight sentenced Griffith to 60 days in jail with all but 2 days set to be served. Griffith was also placed on 12 months unsupervised probation.

Griffith was ordered to turn himself in on December 12, 2025 to serve his 2 day sentence, which took place over this past weekend. While in jail for the Driving While Impaired by Alcohol offense, he was served with an arrest warrant for the above stated charges.

While looking at Maryland Judiciary Case Search, I found it very interesting that a first time offender was sentenced to 60 days and have to serve 2 days for a first time offense so I looked a little deeper and found that Griffith was actually operating under an alias, with my suspicions leading me to look for similar names.

When I searched for individuals with the same date of birth and with similar names, I found an individual by the name of Jonathan Keith Strunk, from Delmar, Delaware.

Jonathan Keith Strunk ironically has the same exact date of birth as Sudlersville Town Commissioner Jonathan Keith Griffith. With this information coming to fruition, and my suspicions of them being the same person, I decided to dig deeper.

I checked Jonathan Keith Strunk in the Maryland Judiciary Case Search and found that he has prior alcohol related driving offenses, Driving While Impaired by Alcohol from 2017, where he was found guilty and placed on supervised probation for 1 year 4 months and 17 days, then another 7 months and 14 days of unsupervised probation. 

At the time of this post, I have been unable to obtain any name change information but once we clarify this information, we will update this article.

Griffith had a bond review hearing as of December 15, 2025 at 1:15 PM, and was ordered to be held without bond. His next court appearance is scheduled for a motions hearing on February 24, 2026.

Disclosure: All individuals mentioned in this article are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Eastern Shore Undercover® does not express or imply any opinion regarding the incident reported.