WASHINGTON - Christine Rhodes, an employee at the Library of Congress retail store, has been sentenced for stealing money on numerous occasions from the store in fraudulent sales transactions, U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor and Karl W. Schornagel, Inspector General for the Library of Congress, announced today.

Rhodes, 61, of the 200 block of Douglas Street, NE, Washington, D.C., pled guilty last year to this offense in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia before the Honorable Magistrate Judge Alan Kay. Judge Kay sentenced Rhodes today to 30 months of probation, and ordered her to pay a $1,000 fine and to make $2,000 of restitution to the Library of Congress.

According to the factual proffer of evidence by the government at the plea hearing for Rhodes, with which she agreed, the Library of Congress, which is a part of the federal Legislative Branch whose budget is approved by Congress, serves as the research arm of Congress and has the largest library in the world. Rhodes was a Library of Congress employee in the Library's Retail Marketing Office's store ("the store"). Her title was Sales Counter Attendant. The store sells retail items to members of the general public.

Over a two-year period, Rhodes on a routine basis wrongfully took for her own personal use cash from the cash drawer of the register assigned to her at the store. That is, Rhodes took cash on numerous occasions, approximately $30 to $40 on each occasion, over the past two years. Usually, when the store was busy near the end of the business day, Rhodes would not enter into her register the amount of a customer's purchase, but instead would simply take for her own use the money from the purchase. Rhodes, although knowing that her actions were wrong, did so, in part, because she believed that others were similarly pocketing money from sales and there was a certain amount of discontent among employees because they had not received a bonus at the end of the year, although such bonuses had been common in other years.

A second Sales Counter Attendant, John Moore, also pled guilty to a similar series of thefts through fraudulent register transactions. He is scheduled to be sentenced in March of this year.

In announcing this sentence, U.S. Attorney Taylor and Inspector General Schornagel praised the hard work of the investigative agents involved in this matter, especially Assistant Inspector General, Investigations, Kenneth Keeler, and Special Agent Hugh Coughlin of that same office. They also acknowledged the efforts of Legal Assistant Lisa Robinson, as well as Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Butler, who is prosecuting these matters.