SAN DIEGO — The felony convictions of 4 Navy officers in a sprawling bribery case had been vacated resulting from prosecutorial misconduct Wednesday.
U.S. District Choose Janis Sammartino known as the misconduct “outrageous” and agreed to permit the 4 males to plead responsible to a misdemeanor and pay a $100 positive every. The officers on Wednesday pleaded responsible to a cost of destruction of presidency property, based on the San Diego Union-Tribune.
The officers — former Capts. David Newland, James Dolan and David Lausman and former Cmdr. Mario Herrera — had been convicted in one of many worst bribery circumstances in latest historical past for the Navy that centered round a protection contractor nicknamed Fats Leonard.
Assistant U.S. Lawyer Peter Ko, who was introduced on after the 4 officers had been tried final yr, acknowledged to the choose that a number of the allegations of misconduct had been true although he didn’t say which of them. He mentioned his workplace didn’t agree with all the accusations.
Greater than two dozen Navy officers, protection contractors and others have been convicted on varied fraud and corruption prices within the case, which ran over years.
Protection attorneys for the 4 officers had spent greater than a yr difficult the convictions and accusing the prosecution of misconduct. It was the most recent misstep within the case.
Leonard Francis, the protection contractor, fled from home arrest in San Diego a yr in the past. He was later captured in Venezuela, the place he stays.
A decade in the past, Francis was arrested in a San Diego lodge as a part of a federal sting operation. Investigators say he and his firm, Glenn Protection Marine Asia, bilked the Navy out of greater than $35 million by shopping for off dozens of top-ranking Navy officers with booze, intercourse, lavish events and different items.
In change, the officers, together with the primary active-duty admiral to be convicted of a federal crime, hid the scheme during which Francis would overcharge for supplying ships or cost for pretend companies at ports he managed in Southeast Asia, investigators mentioned.
The case, which delved into salacious particulars about service members dishonest on their wives and searching for out prostitutes, was a humiliation to the Pentagon. It was prosecuted by the U.S. legal professional’s workplace, which provided an unbiased authority from the army justice system.
The U.S. Lawyer’s workplace in San Diego didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark. The Related Press additionally left messages with three prosecutors concerned within the case.
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