CONNECTICUTT
A sailor admitted Friday to taking photographs with his cell phone of classified nuclear submarine instruments and equipment, officials announced.
Kristian Saucier, 29, of Arlington, Vermont, plead guilty in federal court in Connecticut to one count of unauthorized possession and retention of national defense information, according to authorities.
Saucier is facing up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. He is free on $100,000 bond pending sentencing, according to officials.
U.S. District Judge Stefan R. Underhill set sentencing for Aug. 19.
Court documents indicate that 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.
He was arrested May 28, 2015, officials said.
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 according to officials.