A 40-year-old Hughesville man, Victor R. Papagno, was sentenced Dec. 22 to 18 months in prison and ordered to pay more than $159,000 in restitution after pleading guilty in October 2008 to Theft of Government Property in connection with his stealing nearly 19,000 pieces of computer and office equipment from the U.S. Department of Navy while he worked at the Naval Research Laboratory.

Papagno also was sentenced to three years of supervised release, ordered to pay a special assessment of $100 and ordered to forfeit all the items he stole. Under the terms of the plea agreement, the Government and the defendant had agreed that an appropriate sentence for Papagno would be 12 to 18 months in prison.

Judge Friedman explained that he sentenced Papagno at the top of the guidelines range allowed under the plea agreement because of the extensive nature and duration of the crime. “This went on for a 10-period. This was a very serious crime,” Judge Friedman said while sentencing the defendant. “This kind of conduct can’t be tolerated and it won’t be tolerated.” Noting that Papagno had told NCIS agents, “I guess I just love to steal,” when he was first interviewed about the thefts, Judge Friedman said this showed that despite the defendant’s claim that he committed the crime because he had an obsessive-compulsive disorder, that, “You did know it was wrong.”

In addition to ordering that Papagno return all the items that were stolen, Judge Friedman also ordered the defendant to reimburse the Navy for the 1,980 hours of time expended by more than 11 Navy employees and contractors just to retrieve, organize, count and evaluate all the items that Papagno stole. The tab for the NRL personnel came to $159,183.15, under provisions of the federal Mandatory Victims Rights Act, Papagno would have to pay off over his lifetime.

In addition to concerns about the crime itself, Judge Friedman said the longer sentence was also based on evidence that Papagno had stolen computer equipment from area conventions and trade shows for years, had been involved in a scheme to defraud area retailers by duplicating electronic coupons he purchased on eBay, and had lied on a job application this summer when he applied for a job as computer analyst at Constellation Energy’s Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant in Lusby. Papagno was ultimately fired a few months later by Constellation Energy after an investigation by special agents from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Office of Investigations determined that Papagno had failed to disclose both a 2001 arrest and the NCIS investigation, when he applied for the job. Judge Friedman said he found it disturbing that Papagno had lied on his job application after being notified by the government that he was the target of the NCIS theft investigation.

* more than 100 personal computers

* 167 computer keyboards

* 275 computer mice

* 712 computer power supply cords

* 86 USB/Firewire cables

* 80 computer monitors

* 187 printer toner cartridges