A Portage man has been sentenced to the Indiana Department of Corrections for his role in two of the burglaries last year of the Chesterton wastewater treatment plant at 300 League Lane.

On Friday Porter Superior Court Judge Bill Alexis sentenced Bradley Eric Sharpe, 20, of 6176 Federal Ave., to four years in prison, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Mike Drenth told the Chesterton Tribune.

Sharpe had originally been charged with two counts of burglary, a Class C felony punishable by a term of two to eight years. He subsequently pleaded guilty to one count of burglary, Drenth said.

According to Porter Police, Sharpe participated in two of the three burglaries of the treatment plant, one on June 1, 2007, the other on July 4, 2007. Det. Mike Veal of the PPD said that Sharpe was implicated in the burglaries when his probation officer paid him a visit at home and observed in plain view a scale taken from the treatment plant.

Three others have also been charged. Luke Bradley, 19, of 401 Franklin St. in Porter, has been charged with three counts of receiving stolen property and is the only one of the four implicated in all three burglaries, police said: the first on Nov. 17, 2006, and then the June 1 and July 4 jobs. Receiving stolen property is a Class D felony punishable by a term of six months to three years.

John Sniderhan, 19, of LaPorte, has been charged with one count of aiding in a burglary in connection with the Nov. 17 job, police said. Aiding in a burglary is a Class C felony.

And an unnamed 18-year-old Chesterton resident has been charged with one delinquency count of burglary, also in connection with the Nov. 17 job. He was a juvenile at the time of that offense and his charge is being pursued by the Juvenile Probation Department.

The most significant break in the PPD’s investigation of the burglaries—which subsequently prompted the Chesterton Utility to construct new fencing at the treatment plant and the Town Council to install video surveillance equipment—came when Officer Marty Gonzalez of the PPD developed information from a traffic stop on Aug. 3, 2007, leading to arrests.

Police said that some of the items taken from the treatment plant were recovered from Sharpe’s residence and Bradley’s, including tools, computers, radios, and an air pack.

Posted 4/1/2008