Shipyard worker pleads guilty in copper theft

PORTLAND – A utilities supervisor at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard pleaded guilty Monday in U.S. District Court to stealing copper piping valued by the Navy at between $5,000 and $9,000.

Daniel Lapointe, 46, of Somersworth, N.H., is scheduled to be sentenced March 29 for theft of government property, a felony that carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

The theft occurred in June 2005 when Lapointe was overseeing the removal of equipment and materials that included some 1,500 pounds of large copper piping from a building slated for demolition.

Lapointe cut the piping into smaller sections and took it home for personal use, rather than store it elsewhere at the yard as he was directed, authorities said.