VERMONT
A federal grand jury indicted a sailor for taking photographs with his cell phone of classified nuclear submarine instruments and equipment, officials said.
Thursday, the grand jury returned its indictment charging Kristian Saucier, 28, of Arlington, Vermont, with unlawfully retaining photos taken inside restricted areas of a nuclear attack submarine, and obstructing the investigation of this matter.
As alleged in court documents, from September 2007 to March 2012, Saucier served as a machinist’s mate aboard the USS Alexandria, which is a U.S. Navy Los Angeles-class nuclear attack submarine based at the Naval Submarine Base New London in Groton, Connecticut.
On at least three separate dates in 2009, Saucier used the camera on his personal cellphone to take photographs of classified spaces, instruments and equipment of the USS Alexandria.
In March 2012, Saucier’s cellphone was found at a waste transfer station in Hampton, Connecticut.
After Saucier was interviewed by the FBI and Naval Criminal Investigative Service in July 2012, Saucier destroyed a laptop computer, a personal camera and the camera’s memory card.
Pieces of a laptop computer were subsequently found in the woods on a property in Connecticut owned by a member of Saucier’s family.
Saucier is currently enlisted in the U.S. Navy as a Petty Officer First Class assigned to the Naval Support Activity Base, Saratoga Springs, New York.
He was arrested on May 28 and is released on a $100,000 bond.
If convicted of the charges, Saucier can be sentenced to prison for up to 30 years in prison.
Saucier is presumed innocent until proven guilty.