Archives thief sentenced to jail term
By Daily Bruin Staff
Feb. 8, 1996 9:00 p.m.
Archives thief sentenced to jail term
By Brooke Olson
Daily Bruin Staff
A former library employee and undergraduate student who stole
more than $1 million worth of material from the UCLA archives was
sentenced to three years and four months in state prison on
Wednesday.
Robert Michael Bermeo pled guilty to two counts of receiving
stolen property, two counts of grand theft and one count of
committing a felony while out on bail. He was immediately sent to
state prison.
"We consider this sentence a very good outcome," said Rita
Scherri, an associate university librarian.
The thefts occurred between October 1990 and June 1992, while
Bermeo was a "trusted" employee, university librarian Gloria Werner
said.
Bermeo stole rare items such as manuscripts, first-edition
works, photographs and other archived material from both the
library’s special and general collections. Missing items included
Andy Panda comic books, original M*A*S*H television scripts and an
English Bible published in 1595.
The university first became aware of the thefts in 1993, Werner
said.
Los Angeles police Detective Don Hrycyk said the investigation
began in June 1994. The department received a tip from a West
Hollywood animation dealer who said Bermeo attempted to sell him
stolen property.
The dealer recognized the goods as items from UCLA’s collections
and informed the police. Bermeo was arrested during a sting
operation that same month. He was released on $150,000 bail, said
Deputy District Attorney Patricia Martinez.
More than one year later, Bermeo was arrested again when police
discovered unreported stolen items in his car.
"(Los Angeles police) received a tip that there was additional
UCLA property in (Bermeo’s) car which he had not given back to
UCLA," Hrycyk said. "We seized the car and found $100,000 worth of
additional material."
Prosecutors and defense attorney Walter Urban then combined the
two cases and Bermeo pled guilty to all counts.
At press time, Urban was unavailable for comment.
Bermeo has a history of sporadic undergraduate enrollment in
UCLA, withdrawing and re-entering the university six times between
the summer of 1984 and spring of 1992.
In May 1990, he was hired as a student assistant and special
collections processor for the library. Among other duties, Bermeo
was responsible for special collections inventory.
Although the library has recovered most of the stolen goods,
there are story boards from the movie "High Noon" which have not
been returned.
However, to refund some of the library’s losses, Los Angeles
Superior Court Judge Larry Fidler ordered Bermeo to make a $7,000
restitution payment.
Library officials said they were pleased with the handling of
the investigation.
"UCLA takes crimes such as this very seriously and supports
prosecution to the full extent of the law," Werner said in a
prepared statement. "I want to commend the work of city and campus
police officers and the district attorney’s office, all of whom
worked in close cooperation with library staff to resolve this case
and recover these valuable materials."
This latest conviction is not the first time Bermeo has been
arrested and charged with grand theft.
On Sept. 12, 1986, Bermeo, then a UCLA undergraduate student
government advocate, was arrested and charged with theft after he
allegedly stole about $1,200 in merchandise from a Westwood
clothing store.
Bermeo pled no contest to the charge and was sentenced to 20
hours of community service.
Library officials said they were unaware of Bermeo’s prior
arrest record when he was hired because the case was sealed by the
court.
Daily Bruin file photo
Robert Michael Bermeo pled guilty to theft of archives
property.
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