Former Lt. Gov. Candidate Charged for DNC Theft

Brad-KoplinskiEx-Harrisburg Councilman Brad Koplinski found himself in handcuffs outside the Democratic National Convention a day before the event started.

Koplinski, who attended last week’s Republican National Convention using a friend’s credentials, was arrested on Sunday for using those credentials to get into the PA Convention Center and stealing press and parking passes for the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Chris Palmer of the Inquirer reports.

Koplinski faces multiple charges including burglary, theft and trespassing.

At the RNC in Cleveland last week, Koplinski was seen selling “Make America Great Again” and “Team Trump” campaign buttons, according to Christine Vendel of PennLive.

On July 9th, I saw the 2014 Democratic candidate for Lieutenant Governor buying and selling memorabilia from his table at the American Political Items Collectors’ National Convention at Harrisburg Hilton.

Maybe Koplinski was just trying to score some exclusive new inventory, but it will cost him at least the $1,000 he paid to post bail. His preliminary hearing is set for Aug. 8th.

27 Responses

  1. A debt of gratitude is in order for sharing the post.. folks are universes best individual in every existences of individual..they need or must succeed to maintain needs of the crew. His Secret Obsession

  2. If I were a Democrat it would make me uncomfortable to watch the videos Bernie supporters produced from the convention floor too. Better to just crawl inside yourself and pretend the fantasy is real.

  3. Wow. Lots of Trump-defense here, and how about that Alex Jones/Infowars guy “look at this anti-Dem website! It says what I want to hear, so it MUST be fact!”
    Some Trump garbage got busted with his hand in both cookie-jars. Big surprise. Moving on…

  4. Has someone been impersonating Unsanctioned R or has he just gone completely off the rails? Black flag? The buttons said stuff like “Team Trump” and had photos of Trump and Pence and one had photos of Melania Trump. Has the Trump virus infected your brain? I understand it must be discouraging to have to constantly defend someone who has basically all but committed treason and promised to commit war crimes, but come on.

  5. Koplinski currently working in Congressional Campaigns. Wonder what his employers think about these crazy actions by Koplinski?

  6. DD, you have no idea what you’re talking about.

    1) It’s harder to obtain a conviction on an uncharged lesser included offense (here, trespassing (related to the entry into the credentialing area) and/or theft by taking) when charged with burglary. If someone breaks into someone’s house in order to murder someone else, the defendant would be charged with murder and burglary.

    2) “Took/stole something” is not an offense recognized by the Pa Crimes Code.

    3) The trespass relates to separate conduct. He shouldn’t have been in the facility, regardless of whether he stole the credentials. And yes, he could have been charged for just “being there” if he didn’t take anything:

    18 Pa.C.S. 3503(a)(1)(i): “A person commits an offense if, knowing that he is not licensed or privileged to do so, he: (i) enters, gains entry by subterfuge or surreptitiously remains in any building or occupied structure or separately secured or occupied portion thereof. . .” He wasn’t permitted to be there. He knew that he wasn’t licensed to be there, otherwise he wouldn’t have stolen the credentials. Ergo, he committed trespass.

    You constantly talk law, yet you constantly have no idea what you’re talking about. Please stop.

  7. those of us who have actually worked as prosecuting attorneys know that one must file a criminal complaint alleging each alleged crime which is supported by the underlying facts. so mr. piano’s analysis is , well, just plain wrong. the Pa Crimes code dictates the specific language to be used in a criminal complaint. “Took/stole something” is not in any crimes code known to mankind.
    “burglary” – entering premises where you have no right to be, with intent to commit a crime
    “theft” – the taking of property of another, without consent or permission
    “trespass” – entry onto the premises of another , without consent , and in defiance of a posted notice .
    from the facts alleged, it sounds to me like Koplinski trespassed and burgled by entering RNC premises, where he had no right to be, in order to steal something, and committees theft ie. stole something. it also appears that he’s totally lost his mind, which is not yet a crime in PA .

  8. Pat Unger and Brandy-

    He was in Cleveland helping a friend who collects/sells campaign buttons/shirts. He’s certainly not a Trump supporter.

  9. “burglary, theft and trespassing” is more prosecutorial bullsh*t to stack up charges. It’s one act/alleged-crime.

    The charge should be: “Took/stole something”
    The means itself (trespassing) shouldn’t be a separate charge.

    Would he have been charged for just “being there” if he didn’t take anything? No. Of course not.

    David

  10. I do think for he’s going to be in prison for a long time or give him a death sentence.

  11. That’s the false flagging I mentioned. His mug shot is in Philadelphia where he was picked up rallying with his Democrat petition signers at the DNC.

  12. Naw, I’m pretty sure it was the Democrat candidate for Lt. Gov. that got pinched while at the DNC.

  13. This is the guy photographed wearing a “Trump” hat and selling Trump buttons, right?

    They should have his head examined – assuming the can get it out of his arse.

  14. Barricks Einwohner: other outlets say a Dem staffer noticed missing items…numbered items, so it was easy to tell that someone stole them. They then had security camera footage once it was noticed that some were stolen.

  15. In reading some of the other articles from other news outlets, it seems as though he either (A) stole the RNC credentials or (B) got the RNC credentials “legally” from a friend but in order to do so was supposed to sell Trump items (not “racist” items planted by the DNC)…probably one of those “sure, you can go in my place, but in order to do so you have to ___”

    Other news outlets also say he was at the RNC to gain opposition intelligence for multiple campaigns within PA, and at least one outlet says the RNC member who’s credentials he used reported them stolen…so he could be charged there as well.

    PoliticsPA doesn’t really share any of that info here…just tid-bits that don’t tell the whole story and lead the reader to make random, inaccurate conclusions.

    Also, Unsanctioned R: Paterno withdrew from the race due to issues with his ballot signatures. I believe Koplinski was the one who filed the complaint, if I remember correctly. So, Paterno never showed up on the ballot.

  16. He was also selling racist/misogynist stuff. What kind of Democrat candidate for Lt. Gov. does this stuff? I’ll tell you–false flagging plants from the DNC do. Don’t think it could happen? Then read the DNCleaks. This is a guy who less than two years ago got thousands of Democrat’s votes in a statewide primary. I think he beat Jay Paterno.

  17. I saw a picture of this guy wearing a Trump hat. There is clearly something wrong with him. No educated person would wear that garbage.

  18. I agree PA Mom–whoever this guy supports should not be President. He’s a true blue Democrat, arrested at the DNC. As a matter of fact, he ran for Lt. Gov. as a Democrat same year as Wolf, 2014. He was trying to make Republicans look bad by selling racist trashy pins he had made up. Lowest of the low.

  19. This guy went from Trump supporter to arrestee real quick. Not sure what is more troublesome – the fact that he is a thief or the fact that he supports Trump.

    No woman in this great country should cast a vote for Trump. He would be very bad for women and very bad for working families.

  20. I’m waiting for the DNCleaks email that asked this Democrat Lt. Gov. candidate from 2 years ago to black flag the RNC with racist materials as part of their WikiLeaks-revealed astroturf program of Trump dissent.

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