[StBernard] JPSO says Chalmette man sold phones stolen from BP after oil spill to undercover deputy

Westley Annis westley at da-parish.com
Wed Mar 21 21:10:45 EDT 2012


JPSO says Chalmette man sold phones stolen from BP after oil spill to
undercover deputy

Published: Wednesday, March 21, 2012, 8:48 AM Updated: Wednesday, March
21, 2012, 8:55 AM

By Michelle Hunter, The Times-Picayune

A Chalmette man was arrested Friday after he allegedly sold cell phones
stolen from BP during clean-up of the Gulf oil spill to an undercover
Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office deputy. Brian Quarterman, 27, was booked
with two counts of possession of stolen property $500 to $1,500, an arrest
report said.

Sheriff's Office detectives were investigating the theft of seven of the oil
company's Motorola Nextel cell phones believed to have been stolen during
the massive clean-up efforts after the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon
rig off the coast of Louisiana in April 2010, the arrest report said.

Quarterman was in some way involved in the clean-up. Col. John Fortunato,
spokesman for the Sheriff's Office, confirmed that he did not work for
either Jefferson Parish or the Sheriff's Office.

"He some how acquired the phones during that time," Fortunato said.

The department did not comment any further on the case. But according to
Quarterman's arrest report, detectives determined that he had the phones and
arranged to buy them in the parking lot of a business in the 1700 block of
Veterans Memorial Boulevard in Metairie on Friday.

Investigators bought the phones from him for $1,500, the report said. He was
arrested after detectives confirmed the phones belonged to BP using the
telephone numbers.

Quarterman confessed to selling the oil company's phones, the arrest report
said. He was booked Friday at the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center in
Gretna.

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