From Newsday - August 28, 1993

Shoplift Charge for Secretary of Army

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Washington - The Army's acting secretary, John Shannon, has been charged with shoplifting a woman's blouse and skirt at a post exchange near the Pentagon, the Army said yesterday.

The incident occurred Thursday at the Army PX at Ft. Myer, Va., said Army spokesman Col. Steve Rausch. A store detective apprehended Shannon for allegedly shoplifting a woman's blouse and skirt, the spokesman said.

Shannon, 59, was charged with misdemeanor theft of government property, an offense that carries a maximum penalty of 1 year in prison and a $100,000 fine, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Chesnut, a federal prosecutor in Alexandria, Va.

Shannon was given a ticket and ordered to appear Oct. 22 before a federal magistrate- in Alexandria, Chesnut said. The charged offense is a misdemeanor because the value of the allegedly stolen property is less than $100.

Shannon, who is married and has a son in the Army Reserve, has been acting as the Army's top civilian official pending the nomination of a new secretary by the Clinton administration. He was placed on administrative leave at his own request. The Army Chief of Staff, Gen. Gordon Sullivan, has taken over as the acting Army secretary in the interim, Rausch said.

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