NEWPORT BEACH : Ex-Officer Sentenced for Thefts at UCI

A former UC Irvine police officer pleaded no contest Wednesday to charges of stealing computers and other electronic equipment from the campus and was sentenced to one year in Orange County Jail and five years of probation.

Scott Eric Roberts, 34, pleaded no contest in Harbor Municipal Court to 36 criminal charges, including felony residential and commercial burglary and receiving and selling stolen property.

Campus police investigators alleged that between December, 1990, and October, 1993, while Roberts was an officer with the university’s police force, he stole computer equipment, videocassette recorders, and other items from classrooms, offices and a dormitory.

Ironically, Roberts’ duty on campus during that time was to closely monitor those areas, because a rash of burglaries was occurring at other colleges in the Los Angeles and Orange County areas, said UCI Chief of Police Kathy Stanley.

The district attorney’s office was able to retrieve about $40,000 worth of the equipment, some from Roberts’ home in Trabuco Canyon.

Roberts, a nine-year veteran, was put on administrative leave in October, then fired on Dec. 20 as a result of an investigation that began after a Cal State Fullerton student became suspicious of a computer his roommate borrowed from work.

The student, who had been working as a computer programmer at the Cal State Fullerton Police Department, noticed that the computer was similar to the university’s, and even had a sticky surface in the exact spot where the university places identification numbers on its computers.

The student then asked campus police to run a check on the computer. The check revealed that the computer had been stolen from UC Irvine, and police traced it to a person who said he had bought it from Roberts.

“It was a shock to find out that he had stolen property,” Stanley said. “He really did nothing to let us believe that he was capable” of the thefts.

Stanley said that Roberts carried a master key and spent a lot of time checking buildings throughout the campus.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Randy Pawloski said Roberts would sell the property to friends or acquaintances and may even have sold some at garage sales.

Judge Craig Robinson ordered Roberts to pay restitution of $12,873 to purchasers of the stolen computers.

He faced a maximum of 11 years in prison, but was given the lesser sentence because he had no record, said Pawloski, who had argued for at least a four-year sentence.

The counts against Roberts also included felony possession of nunchakus, a martial arts weapon, and a misdemeanor possession of marijuana.

Attempts to reach Roberts and his attorney were unsuccessful Wednesday.