Disgraced former Biden Energy Department official Samuel Brinton pleaded “no contest” this week after being caught on video allegedly stealing luggage at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas.
Eight News Now reported that Brinton agreed to pay the victim more than $3,500 in restitution and received a suspended 180-day jail sentence, meaning that he will serve no time behind bars assuming he can stay out of trouble. An arrest warrant was issued for Brinton in December for grand larceny with a value between $1,200 and $5,000.
Brinton pleaded “no contest” to misdemeanor theft, which is categorized as an amount less than $1,200, after he was initially charged with a felony when police believed the amount was $3,670, the report said.
Investigators said that “a white male adult wearing a white T-shirt with a large rainbow colored atomic nuclear symbol design” was seen on security camera footage taking the woman’s bag before leaving the airport.
“Brinton demonstrated several signs of abnormal behavior while taking the victim’s luggage which are cues suspects typically give off when committing luggage theft,” investigators in Las Vegas wrote in their report. “Specifically, Brinton pulled the victim’s luggage from the carousel and examined the tag.”
“Then placing it back on the carousel, looking in all directions for anyone who might be watching, or might approach,” the report continued. “Pulling it back off the carousel and demonstrating the same behavior by looking around before walking away with it quickly. Brinton only having checked one piece of luggage, which Brinton had already claimed from the carousel, had no reason to be examining and taking any other pieces of luggage.”
Brinton, who caused a stir among Americans over his role in the federal government for dressing in drag and boasting online about his puppy role-play fetish, came under fire in November of last year for allegedly stealing a woman’s luggage in Minneapolis.
He reportedly flew into Minneapolis−Saint Paul International Airport with American Airlines just before 4:30 p.m. from Washington, D.C. According to the complaint, Brinton traveled without a checked bag, indicating he had no purpose to claim a bag after landing.
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The complaint alleges Brinton left the airport in an Uber and checked into the InterContinental St. Paul Riverfront hotel with the blue bag.
Brinton returned to MSP two days later, on September 18, and flew back to Washington, D.C., with the same bag.
Records and video surveillance showed the suitcase belonged to a female passenger who flew into the MSP on a Delta flight from New Orleans. According to a report, she notified law enforcement that her bag and the contents inside — valued at around $2,325 — had gone missing in the baggage claim area on the same day Brinton allegedly took the luggage.
Nearly three weeks later, the criminal complaint alleges, video surveillance footage from Dulles International Airport in Virginia captured Brinton returning from Europe with the bag on October 9.
Authorities contacted Brinton that same day, asking if he “took anything that did not belong” to him.
“Not that I know of,” Brinton allegedly responded, but later admitted he took the bag.
“If I had taken the wrong bag, I am happy to return it, but I don’t have any clothes for another individual. That was my clothes when I opened the bag,” he told police, according to the complaint.
He allegedly called authorities two hours later and apologized for not being “completely honest,” adding he took the bag thinking it was his in a state of exhaustion. The complaint also alleges Brinton realized it wasn’t his bag after opening it up at the hotel, at which point he “got nervous” and “didn’t know what to do.”
By avoiding the felony charge in Las Vegas, Brinton dodged potentially having to serve up to 10 years in prison.
If convicted on the felony charge he faces in Minnesota, he could face five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.