A top Pentagon official has agreed to pay a $1,000 fine and perform 32 hours of community service in an odd case that has rankled a Capitol Hill neighborhood.
Veteran Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman was caught stealing the license plates off the car belonging to a neighbor’s nanny two months ago after threatening to have her car towed for violating neighborhood parking rules, according to documents obtained by CNN.
Whitman has since been put on leave, according to Pentagon spokesman Gordon Trowbridge.
“In light of the pending criminal case involving Bryan Whitman, he has been placed on administrative leave while the department reviews this matter” Trowbridge said in a statement.
The incident was first reported by The Washington Post.
Police confronted Whitman last month and he admitted to stealing the plates, according to the court documents.
The neighbors who hired the nanny caught Whitman stealing the plates, after setting up a camera inside their home after the nanny’s license plates were stolen in a prior incident, earlier in April, according to the court documents. Whitman is a veteran in the Pentagon’s public affairs office and has been a top spokesman on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“It’s a personnel matter we are not going to be able to comment,” Pentagon deputy press secretary Gordon Trowbridge told CNN Wednesday. Whitman has not been reassigned duties, he said. Trowbridge declined to state if Whitman will be at work in the future.
Whitman’s lawyer, Danny Onorato, declined comment Thursday.
Court records show that three charges of second degree theft were filed against Whitman and that, on Tuesday, he entered into the plea agreement which also mandates he stay away from the neighbor and the nanny. An incident report obtained by CNN showed the Capitol Hill resident reported that her nanny’s rear license plates were stolen April 21.