Fort Meade Guard From Pasadena Sentenced In $40K Theft

PASADENA, MD — A former security guard at a top secret area in Fort Meade was sentenced Thursday with lying about her work hours and being paid $40,000 she didn't earn, according to federal authorities. Shawn Penn, 42, of Pasadena, pleaded guilty to making false claims and lying to her employer that she was working as a security guard at a government facility, when she was actually elsewhere.

Penn was sentenced to spend one month in prison, followed by five months of home confinement and three years of supervised release for causing more than $40,000 in false claims to be submitted to the government, according to a statement from prosecutors. Penn told her employer that she was working as a security guard at a government facility, when she was actually elsewhere. In addition, a judge ordered Penn to pay $30,000 in restitution.

According to her plea agreement, Penn worked as a contract employee performing security guard services for the U.S. Department of Defense in Anne Arundel County. In addition, Penn worked full-time, during regular business hours, as an active duty U.S. Army Intelligence Officer at Fort Meade. Her duties included reviewing computer monitors with live video from security cameras, checking for alarms, monitoring the temperature in the facility and performing exterior security sweeps.

The indictment alleges that from September 2015 to August 2016, Penn regularly left her work station and lied to her employer that she had been working as a security guard when she was actually elsewhere. Because of her false claims regarding her security work hours, Penn was paid more than $40,000 to which she was not entitled.

In addition, on October 6, 2016, Penn lied to investigators from the Defense Criminal Investigative Service that she had not abandoned her security guard duties until January 2016, when in fact, she had been abandoning her duties since at least September 2015, authorities said in a news release. Penn claimed that she “sat in her car,” was “across the street,” or “drove around the parking lot,” during her guard shifts, when Penn knew she was elsewhere during those shifts.

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