RICHMOND,
Va. (TheBlaze/AP) — A career criminal who stole a truck containing
President Obama’s audio equipment was sentenced Thursday to seven years
in federal prison.
Sentencing
guidelines called for a term of about three years, but Eric Brown of
Richmond agreed to the longer sentence to avoid prosecution for 14
similar truck thefts in three localities. However, he could still face
charges in Stafford County, which did not join Chesterfield, Hanover and
Henrico counties in the agreement.
Brown pleaded guilty in January to theft of government property.
President
Barack Obama (R) meets with United Nations Secretary General Ban
Ki-moon (L) in the Oval Office of the White House April 11, 2013 in
Washington, DC. Obama hosted Ban for talks on various topics including
the crises in Syria and on the Korean Peninsula. Credit: Getty Images
“The
theft of government property is a serious offense,” Assistant U.S.
Attorney Roderick Young said in court. “It’s all the more serious when
the property belongs to the White House Communications Agency.”
Young acknowledged that seven years seemed like a long sentence, but the judge didn’t agree.
“No it’s not,” U.S. District Judge John A. Gibney interjected.
Later, the judge said: “If I had to sum up Mr. Brown’s character, it would be that he’s a thief.”
Young
outlined Brown’s “nightmarishly long” criminal record – three dozen
convictions for crimes including burglary, drug possession, identity
fraud and grand theft auto stretching back more than three decades. Most
recently, Brown operated “a pretty serious one-man car theft ring,”
Gibney said.
In
response to a question from Gibney, Brown said he targeted Ford F-350s
and Ford F-450s because they were easy to steal. One of those trucks
happened to be a 2005 Ford owned by the Defense Information Systems
Agency and assigned to the White House, which was stolen from a Henrico
County hotel parking lot on Oct. 16, 2011, a few days ahead of Obama’s
visit to a suburban Richmond fire station to promote his jobs plan.
President
Barack Obama scratches during a meeting with United Nations Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon in the Oval Office of the White House April 11, 2013
in Washington, DC. Obama hosted Ban for talks on various topics
including crises in Syria and on the Korean Peninsula. Credit: Getty Images
The
truck had no White House markings on the exterior, but inside it was
loaded with speakers, microphones, a teleprompter, a laptop computer,
podiums and other items used in presidential appearances. The van was
empty when it was recovered on the other side of town the next day, and
some of the items were later recovered at Maryland pawn shops.
An
FBI agent said in court papers that an informant told investigators
that Brown had sold a Department of Defense laptop to another person,
and that he saw in Brown’s possession several storage tubs containing
audio equipment – some of it bearing the presidential seal. When the
source confronted Brown about the theft, Brown said: “Man, I got that
truck. I don’t do no playing.”
Brown apologized in court before Gibney imposed the sentence.
Defense attorney David Lett said the sentencing agreement “gives Mr. Brown the opportunity to start anew if he wants to do so.”
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/04/12/man-who-stole-obamas-teleprompter-podium-sentenced-to-7-years-in-federal-prison/
No comments:
Post a Comment