WAFB Channel 9, Baton Rouge, LA |State Police Employee, 11 Others Arrested in Theft of FEMA Computers
A Louisiana State Police employee and 11 others have been arrested as part of a statewide investigation into the theft of 256 computers purchased by FEMA. Only 43 of the stolen computers had been recovered as of Monday morning, police said.
The Dell computers, valued at approximately $900 each, were intended to replace computers in government buildings, hospitals, and other facilities in Louisiana damaged by Hurricane Katrina, said State Police spokesman Lt. Lawrence McLeary. The computers were being stored at the Louisiana State Police Compound on Independence Boulevard in Baton Rouge.
"It's an embarrassment and breach of trust," McLeary said in describing the arrest of State Police employee Japonica Thompson. The 32-year Port Allen woman worked in a computer-related position. She was hired in September 1998, records show.
McLeary says Thompson worked with a trustee assigned to the storage area to sneak computers out of the facility. "Some she was selling out of her house, some she was giving away as gifts to family," McLeary said. "She had some of the relatives of the trustee come down from Shreveport and they were acting as a distribution network for her and selling them up in that area."
Police have provided the following list of 12 of the suspects and the charges each faces:
