ROCKVILLE, MD. - Former White House domestic policy adviser Claude Allen tearfully pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor theft charge Friday, telling a Maryland judge that he lost his bearings while working 14-hour days and getting too little sleep in the "tumultuous time" after Hurricane Katrina.

"Something did go very wrong," said Allen, who began crying during his three minutes of remarks to the court. "I lost perspective and failed to restrain myself. I did not realize or fully appreciate what was going on."

Still, Allen, 45, who started his political career as an aide to Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., insisted he was not trying to offer excuses or shirk responsibility for what police have described as a phony refund scheme involving the theft of more than $5,000 in merchandise from Target and Hecht stores.

"I fully admit my transgressions and take responsibility," he said. "I am intensely and immensely sorry [and] deeply ashamed."

When he was arrested in March, Allen was charged with felony theft. On Friday, as part of a deal agreed to by the prosecution, he pleaded guilty to a single count of misdemeanor theft for stealing items worth less than $500.

Allen, who graduated from Sanderson High School in Raleigh as well as UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke Law School, will serve no jail time. Instead, the first-time offender was put on supervised probation for two years, with permission to travel outside Maryland, where he lives.

He also was assigned 40 hours of community service, which Montgomery County Circuit Judge Eric Johnson said should be spent helping young people -- "coaching soccer, reading Shakespeare" or any other activity, the judge said.

Allen also has to pay $850 in restitution to Target and a $500 fine.

Over the prosecution's opposition, the judge also agreed to Allen's request for "probation before judgment." That means Allen will not have a criminal conviction on his record if he stays out of trouble during his probation period.

Without a conviction, Allen, a lawyer, will likely find it easier to convince bar associations in Virginia, Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia to let him continue practicing law.

Among the lawyers representing Allen on Friday was Gregory Craig, who helped formulate President Clinton's impeachment defense in 1998. He also has represented U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and John Hinckley, who was tried for attempting to assassinate President Reagan in 1981.

Craig and Mallon Snyder, another of Allen's attorneys, refused after the hearing Friday to say whether any high-powered figures in the White House or in Republican politics had written letters to Johnson on Allen's behalf.

Montgomery County State's Attorney Douglas Gansler told reporters that Johnson had received some letters about Allen, but Gansler didn't know from whom. During the hearing, the judge emphasized that Allen's former White House job was not a consideration in deciding his sentence, that he was getting the same deal that others get who have "no prior criminal transgressions."

Formerly popular in conservative political circles and one of the GOP's few African-American stars, Allen was hired in 2005 to be President Bush's top domestic policy adviser. He left the $161,000-a-year job in February, saying he wanted to spend more time with his family.

But a month later, he was arrested. Suddenly, his jailhouse mug shot began showing up on TV along with file footage of him accompanying Bush during walks to a helicopter at the White House.

At the time, police said that Allen had, on 25 occasions between October 2005 and January 2006, gotten refunds for products he didn't buy.

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