A man who stole 14 laptops from D.C. Public Schools and sold them to family and friends avoided jail time after pleading guilty in federal court. Instead, William Banks Jr. paid $2,000 in restitution to the school system and a $500 fine, and received 18 months probation and 50 hours of community service.
In 2009, Banks was doing contract work as a technician at the headquarters DCPS shared with the Department of Health. According to court documents, a DCPS employee brought him into a secure storage room to give him telecommunications equipment that the school system no longer needed.
When the employee left to take a telephone call, Banks, 45, took seven laptops and power cords, concealed them on a cart, and left the room.
Several days later, Banks was responding to a telephone problem at DCPS headquarters and discovered that the same room was unattended, with the door left ajar. He stole seven more computers, which he brought home to Stafford, Va., then sold to family, friends and acquaintances.
The computers, which DCPS bought around 2007, were worth between $1,099 and $2,800. Banks sold at least 10 of the machines — most for about $300, but in at least one case, he sold two for $150.
“The defendant’s offense was made more serious by the identity of the victim,” Ronald Machen, the U.S. attorney for the District, wrote in sentencing papers. He noted that “The D.C. Public School system bears the important responsibility of educating the District’s youth, while operating within a strict and relatively limited budget.”
Fred Lewis, a spokesman for Chancellor Kaya Henderson, said he was not aware of any DCPS employees who were reprimanded as a result of the crime. Lewis said Banks’ access card showed that he let himself into the storage room, and may have been colluding with another contract employee. “There was no evidence that a door was left ‘ajar,'” he said.
After the FBI confronted Banks, he returned six laptops. The FBI recovered an additional five. The remaining laptops were tracked but not recovered from Nigeria, Lewis said.
Banks’s attorney did not return calls seeking comment.
Prosecutors dropped a charge of transporting goods across state lines when Banks pleaded guilty to second-degree theft.
