Arrested TSO Toussain Puddie could receive "guaranteed dismissal" of theft charges
 

The Broward and Palm Beach New Times has posted an interesting update on Toussain Puddie, a former TSO who was the subject of the FT TS&S thread "Oops, not another thief in TSA employ"

Here's the update by Stefan Kamph, which was posted on Tue., Aug. 9 2011 at 3:44 PM: State Going "Full Blast" With Theft Charges Against Former TSA Screener, Says Lawyer

The title is misleading since the update actually describes the possibility of Puddie receiving a guaranteed dismissal of the theft charges filed against him, as described in the last two sentences of the update:
:mad:

Anyone care to organize a petition drive to help ensure prosecution?

It's a sad state of affairs when the federal government takes people who either don't realize, after nearly two weeks, that the very expensive pen they unintentionally took home from work is not their pen, or who realize it isn't their pen but don't think that they should try and return it to the owner or a lost and found. That speaks volumes about the quality of the TSA workforce.

On the other hand, the story may be that he is a common thief. That speaks volumes about the TSA workforce as well.

Either way, the most dangerous part travelling on a commercial airline is transiting the TSA checkpoint. That' when the risk of arrest is highest, the risk of fines is highest, the risk of unwanted touching is highest, the risk of verbal abuse is highest, and the risk of theft is highest. Additionally, there's health risks to consider.

This continuing story is just a reminder that the TSA poses the greatest risk to the airline passenger.

TSA is a real and significant danger to travelers.

^

Thanks! That's it in a nutshell.

If you don't mind, I'm going to quote this in the new round of missives to my senators and congressmen.

Beautiful. Worth quoting again and again.

Bruce

I'm devoid of sympathy for this TSO. That said, if he didn't really know what the pen was worth and thought it was just a pen on top of a filing cabinet, a felony conviction does seem a little steep. I personally think a misdemeanor conviction would strike the right balance. Had he actually taken the pen at the checkpoint knowing it belonged to a passenger, then a felony would seem like the way to go. Frankly, I'm okay as long as it results in some conviction and record.

Amen.

From the article:

That's where he made his mistake. I would absolutely believe that he didn't realize it was an extremely valuable pen when he took it. But when he realized that the pen was valuable, he should have just taken his chances and told them, hey, it was sitting on a counter and I needed a pen. I didn't know that it was valuable.

Mike

^^
Agree. Save the felony charges for the clerks touching sex organs repeatedly on pax all day.

If this the guy has no priors (most likely) and it is only the $450 pen then I would bet the offense will be pleaded down to a misdemeanor with no jail time.

I'd like to know who took the pen from the checkpoint to the cabinet and did not log it as 'lost and found'.

deleted

My understanding from reading the article is that the victim has to consent to such pretrial intervention. I hope he does not. I certainly would not have.

I am sure this clerk did it too. After all, it was part of his job.

Going to jail and getting strip searched as part of the intake process will serve him right. Then he'll know how we feel at airport checkpoints, courtesy of him and his cohorts.

If I forget that I have a loaded gun in my backpack I get a felony conviction at the checkpoint. Doesn't matter if I forgot it was there. They are the ones with the zero tolerance rules, not my fault if they get caught up in them.