A former Department of Energy official on Wednesday pleaded no contest in a theft case stemming from an accusation of stealing someone else’s luggage from a Las Vegas airport. Samuel Brinton, who worked as a deputy assistant secretary at the DOE at the time of the theft in July 2022, was ordered to pay $3,670.74 in victim restitution over the items stolen from Harry Reid International Airport. Brinton was also given a 180-day suspended sentence. Officers were reportedly initially unable to identify a suspect from surveillance camera footage until police saw an article that named Brinton as a suspect in another case of luggage theft from an airport in Minnesota. The DOE confirmed that Brinton was no longer an employee in December.
