Jennifer Steplight, Former Transportation Security Administration Employee Charged with Stealing Laptop Computers Lost at Newark Airport

August 23, 2010

A Bayonne, New Jersey woman surrendered today to face charges that she stole laptops from a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) lost and found facility and made false statements to effectuate her thefts.

Jennifer Steplight, 40, is charged by Complaint with one count of embezzlement by a government employee and one count of false statements, and is scheduled to make an initial appearance this afternoon before United States Magistrate Judge Patty Shwartz in Newark federal court.

According to the criminal Complaint filed in this case:

Steplight was employed by TSA as a Master Transportation Security Officer-Coordination Center Officer and was responsible for maintaining records for the TSA lost and found facility that services Newark Liberty International Airport. From December 2009 through January 2010, Steplight stole four laptop computers from the lost and found facility and entered false information into TSA claim forms and inventory records to conceal her thefts.

If convicted, Steplight faces a maximum potential penalty of one year in prison and a maximum fine of $100,000 on the embezzlement charge, and a maximum potential penalty of five years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000 on the false statement charge.

U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the direction of Michael B. Ward in Newark, with conducting the investigation. He also thanked the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General and the Transportation and Security Administration for their work in the case.

The government is represented by Assistant United States Attorney Lee M. Cortes Jr. of the U.S. Attorney’s Office General Crimes Unit in Newark.