[MSN] Robber of Theodore Roosevelt's revolver gets probation

[Museum Security Network Mailinglist]

Robber of Theodore Roosevelt's revolver gets probation
March 2, 2007, 6:03 PM EST

A former Queens resident was sentenced to two years probation and a $500 fine Friday after pleading guilty to stealing the pistol Theodore Roosevelt used in the Spanish-American War.

Anthony Joseph Tulino, 55, a postal worker from DeLand, Fla., was also sentenced to 50 hours of community service by U.S. Magistrate A. Kathleen Tomlinson in Central Islip.

Tomlinson said she decided not to send Tulino to jail for the violation of the American Antiquities Act of 1906 because he had turned his life around since the theft 17 years ago from a locked display case without an alarm at the Old Orchard Museum at Sagamore Hill National Historical Site in Cove Neck.

"I offer my apology for my action a long time ago," Tulino told the judge. "I make no excuse. I came from a good family. I don't know what happened. I had an anxiety problem. The drugs and alcohol didn't help."

But Tulino added that he had gotten a good job and started a family. "I've matured... I'm not who I was then. I'd like to help my community." Tulino added that he is being fired from his post office job so "I lost my home. I can't provide for my family." He is now working in a warehouse.

His attorney, Thomas Sommerville of Winter Park, Fla., requested probation because since 1990 "he has led a stable life."

The judge told Tulino that "you stole a national treasure ... an item that's irreplaceable." And while she added "I've seen no evidence that you tried to profit" by selling the gun, she pointed out that he never gave it back either.

Nonetheless, she said, "I looked at ... what you've done in the subsequent 16 years." She noted that friends, including the one who arranged to get the gun back to Sagamaore Hill, and members of his church had urged leniency, describing Tulino as hard-working, reliable and honest and a volunteer who served meals to the homeless. So while ruling out jail, she said she would have liked to impose a fine higher than the $500 maximum.

Tulino, his attorney and Assistant U.S. Attorney Lara Treinis Gatz declined to comment on the sentence.

Greg Marshall, the superintendent at Sagamore Hill, said "we're very happy that the pistol is back. We left it up to the court to deal with the person responsible for taking it."

The FBI recovered the gun last year after receiving a tip from an acquaintance of Tulino. It was returned to Sagamore Hill in June and is again on display.

Roosevelt carried the revolver, recovered from the sunken battleship Maine, in the Battle of San Juan Hill in 1898 when he led the Rough Riders in Cuba. The .38-caliber Model 1892 Colt double-action, six shot revolver was originally acquired by the United States government for the U.S. Navy in 1895.

It was contained in the armory of the Battleship Maine when that ship sank in Havana Harbor on Feb. 15, 1898.

During a salvage mission, the revolver was recovered by one of Theodore Roosevelt's relatives and given to Colonel Roosevelt. An inscription on the revolver reads, "July 1st, 1898, San Juan, Carried and Used by Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, From the Sunken Battle Ship Maine."

The monetary value of the revolver has been estimated to be between $250,000 and $500,000 but it considered historically priceless and is one of the most iconic objects at Sagamore Hill.

Law enforcement sources said Tulino, who at the time lived in Whitestone, claimed he was driving through Oyster Bay, saw signs for Sagamore Hill, walked into the museum and took the gun on impulse. Tulino pleaded guilty in 1987 to attempted burglary after an arrest for stealing a painting from a North Shore home and was sentenced to 5 years' probation.

He moved to New Mexico in 1996 and Florida in 2006.

http://www.newsday.com