ARLINGTON, Va.—Sam Brinton is a free man. The disgraced former Department of Energy official pleaded guilty to petit larceny as part of a sweetheart deal that will see him serve no jail time after facing felony charges that carried a sentence of up to 20 years.
State prosecutors quietly announced the plea deal during a hearing last week in Arlington General District Court, which is just an eight-minute drive from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport where Brinton stole a Tanzanian female fashion designer's luggage containing her custom designs six years ago.
According to prosecutors, Brinton entered into an adult diversion program, which requires him to undergo mental health treatment, write a letter of apology, and complete 50 hours of community service helping the elderly. As part of the deal, the charges against Brinton were amended from grand larceny, a felony offense, to petit larceny, a misdemeanor.
The agreement allows Brinton—who made headlines in June 2022 as one of the first-ever nonbinary gender-fluid federal appointees—to escape jail time in a case that could have resulted in as many as 20 years imprisonment, according to Virginia sentencing guidelines for grand larceny. The agreement marks the third time Brinton has been able to escape serving any jail time for stealing women's luggage from airports.
While the agreement was finalized last week, the case remains open. A follow-up hearing in the case is slated for June 2025 to review Brinton's progress. The case may then, at that point, be closed.
"The resolution we came to is supported by the facts and circumstances of the case as a whole," Jessika Thomas, a spokeswoman for Arlington County commonwealth's attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti, said in a statement. "Unfortunately, since this case remains pending, we are prohibited from commenting further."
Brinton and his legal representation declined when asked for comment on the case following the hearing last week. Brinton's husband Kevin Rieck told a Washington Free Beacon reporter to "go away."
In a related civil case filed in Montgomery County, Md., Brinton reached a settlement this week with plaintiff Asya Khamsin, the Tanzanian designer whose luggage he stole at the Washington, D.C.-area airport, the Free Beacon has learned. A stipulated dismissal of the suit is expected to be filed later this week.
Under the settlement, Brinton agreed to pay Khamsin an undisclosed dollar amount and wrote the designer an apology letter.
"Mr. Brinton has apologized to Asya Khamsin, and Asya Khamsin has forgiven Mr. Brinton," legal counsel for Khamsin said in a statement. "Asya Khamsin has decided not to publish Mr. Brinton’s letter of apology, as she considers the letter to be quite personal, sensitive, sincere, and heartfelt."
"Asya Khamsin hopes that the example of reconciliation that she and Mr. Brinton have set will encourage tolerance and coexistence in America, especially at this time of unfortunate public tension," the statement continued. "Asya Khamsin wishes Mr. Brinton all the best."
The case dates back to March 2018 when Brinton stole Khamsin's luggage from a baggage carousel at Reagan Airport. Early last year, Khamsin publicly accused Brinton of the theft after she came across photographs online of him at events wearing clothes similar to the designs contained in her stolen luggage.
On one such occasion, the high-end fashion magazine Vanity Fair published an article praising Brinton's style at a public event. Brinton's clothes featured in that February 2022 article were actually designed by Khamsin and stolen from her luggage four years earlier.
Then, in May 2023, police executed a search warrant of Brinton's Maryland residence in connection with the case. They confiscated clothes designed by Khamsin during the search. Felony charges were formally filed against Brinton one month later.
Khamsin filed her civil suit against Brinton in September 2023.
With the case settled, Khamsin's attorneys said she would like to focus on her work designing clothing and jewelry
Brinton, meanwhile, is now three-for-three in escaping jail time.
In October 2022, prosecutors in Minnesota charged Brinton with stealing a luggage worth $2,325 at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport in September 2022. Then, following extensive media coverage of those charges, Nevada prosecutors soon charged him with the July 2022 theft of luggage worth $3,670 at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas.
In the Minnesota case, Brinton entered an adult diversion program in April 2023, similar to the one finalized last week in Virginia. That same month, Brinton was handed a suspended jail sentence of 180 days, which he was not required to serve, in the Nevada case.
DOE announced in late 2022 that Brinton departed the agency, but declined to comment any further on the situation. During his short stint at DOE, he led the agency's Office of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition.