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Kristian Saucier,
29, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Stefan Underhill in
Bridgeport, Connecticut, after pleading guilty in May to one
criminal count of unauthorized possession and retention of
national defense information.
Prosecutors said Saucier on three occasions took cellphone
photos of classified spaces, instruments and equipment of the
U.S.S. Alexandria, while he was stationed on the submarine in
Groton, Connecticut, as a machinist's mate.
Authorities launched an investigation in March 2012 when
Saucier's phone was found at a waste transfer station in
Hampton, Connecticut.
Prosecutors said that after an initial interview with
investigators, Saucier returned home and destroyed a laptop
computer, camera and memory card.
Saucier, a resident of Arlington, Vermont, was subsequently
arrested in May 2015. In court papers, prosecutors sought a
prison term of 5-1/4 years, saying his conduct was "egregious
and put at risk the national security of our nation."
His lawyer, Derrick Hogan, in court papers requested a term of
probation. They said he never tried to transmit any of the
photographs and took them out of a desire to someday show his
family what he did while he was in the Navy.
Hogan did not respond to a request for comment.
Saucier, who is currently enlisted in the Navy as a petty
officer first class assigned to the Naval Support Activity Base
in Saratoga Springs, New York, is awaiting an administrative
separation board proceeding, prosecutors said.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in New York; Editing by Sandra Maler)
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