Navy officer charged with taking sub photos illegally

Sailor had served aboard USS Alexandria, based in Groton, from 2007 to 2012

A Navy petty officer was indicted by a grand jury Thursday in U.S. District Court in Bridgeport for illegally taking photos inside restricted areas while serving aboard the Groton-based USS Alexandria.

Kristian Saucier, 28, of Arlington, Va., served as a machinist’s mate aboard the Los Angles-class nuclear attack submarine homeported at the Naval Submarine Base from September 2007 to March 2012, according to the government.

He is charged with using his cell phone camera to take photos of classified spaces, instruments and equipment on at least three dates in 2009.

Saucier’s cellphone was found at a waste transfer station in Hampton in March 2012, according to the government.

After he was interviewed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service in July 2012, he destroyed a laptop computer, a personal camera and the camera’s memory card, according to the government.

Pieces of a laptop computer were found in the woods on a property in Connecticut owned by a member of his family.

Saucier was arrested on a criminal complaint on May 28 and released on a $100,000 bond. He is enlisted

in the Navy as a Petty Officer First Class assigned to the Naval Support Activity base in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

The indictment charges him with one count of unauthorized retention of defense information, an offense that carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 10 years and a fine of up to $250,000, and one count of obstruction of justice, an offense that carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years and a fine of up to $250,000.

U.S. Attorney Deirdre M. Daly stressed that an indictment is not evidence of guilt. Charges are only allegations and a defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

This matter is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U. S. Attorneys Vanessa Richards and Jacabed Rodriguez-Coss, with the assistance of Justice Department’s National Security Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of New York.