- DOE official Sam Brinton was allegedly spotted on video looking around before they took a woman's luggage, police accused.
- Las Vegas police have issued an arrest warrant for Brinton over an allegation of suitcase theft at an airport.
Department of Energy official Sam Brinton was seen on surveillance footage "looking in all directions" before they took a woman's luggage from baggage claim at a Las Vegas, Nevada, airport, police alleged.
Last week, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department issued a felony arrest warrant on a grand larceny charge for Brinton — who is one of the federal government's first openly "gender fluid" employees and uses they/them pronouns — over an accusation of suitcase theft.
According to the arrest warrant obtained by Insider, police alleged that Brinton "can clearly be seen and identified on video stealing" a woman's gray Away luggage from a carousel at Las Vegas' Harry Reid International Airport on July 6 "and leaving" with it.
The hard case bag and its contents, which included makeup and jewelry, were estimated to be worth $3,670.74, according to the warrant.
The warrant states that Brinton — the deputy assistant secretary of the Office of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition at the Department of Energy's Office of Nuclear Energy — "demonstrated several signs of abnormal behavior while taking the victim's luggage which are cues suspects typically give off when committing luggage theft."
Specifically, police wrote in the warrant, Brinton first picked up the woman's luggage from the carousel and "examined the tag."
"Then placing it back on the carousel, looking in all directions for anyone who might be watching, or might approach," the warrant says.
Police alleged that Brinton, 35, pulled the bag back off the carousel and demonstrated "the same behavior by looking around before walking away with it quickly."
"Brinton only having checked one piece of luggage, which Brinton had already claimed from the carousel, had no reason to be examining and taking any other pieces of luggage," the warrant continued.
Brinton, who has been placed on administrative leave from their DOE post, was recently charged with felony theft over accusations that they swiped a mother's Vera Bradley suitcase from an airport in Minnesota in September.
Insider has tried to contact Brinton and an attorney for Brinton multiple times but has not gotten a response.