Suspended TSA instructor gets probation

A SUSPENDED training instructor with the Transportation Security Administration who worked at Philadelphia International Airport was sentenced late Wednesday in federal district court to four years' probation in connection with taking a $200 bribe from a TSA officer in 2011.

Shannon Gilliam, 30, of Sharon Hill, was also ordered to serve the first six months of probation under house arrest with an ankle bracelet and perform 300 hours of community service. He pleaded guilty to a single count of bribery in February.

Prosecutors said Gilliam was responsible for training TSA officers at the airport and administering mandatory certification exams to officers who screened passengers and their baggage.

An officer identified as "R.R." failed the exam twice, the government's plea memo said, and Gilliam took him outside the testing room and said he would take the test for him in exchange for $200. Defense attorney Robert Datner said in a sentencing memo that Gilliam had taken tests for other TSA workers, and had received a total of $1,000 in payoffs.

The defense attorney said Gilliam, who suffers from depression and was in financial difficulty at the time he accepted the money, had committed a "situational crime" in taking a test for a limited number of co-workers for the purpose of passing a test.

Datner said there was no evidence in court that any of the workers could not have passed the test on their own.