U.S. District Judge Janis Sammartino, who presided over the trial, accepted the plea agreements reached between the parties, but not before excoriating the prosecution.
SAN DIEGO - Four former U.S. Navy officers convicted in San Diego of accepting bribes from foreign defense contractor Leonard Glenn"Fat Leonard" Francis pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges Wednesday, which resulted in immediate sentences that carried no prison time and $100 fines each.
"These allegations have never been responded to by the government," Sammartino said during Wednesday's change of plea hearing."Rather than respond, the government has moved this court to respect a negotiated resolution of a misdemeanor plea and to dismiss these defendants from the indictment and vacate each defendant's counts of conviction that occurred in this case.
Prosecutors said Francis plied the officers with fancy hotel stays, meals and prostitutes, and in return received classified Navy information and had ships steered to ports his ship husbanding company controlled, which allowed him to overbill the Navy by millions. Sammartino later ruled the actions constituted"flagrant misconduct" but declined a defense request to dismiss the case.
The attorneys argued in court filings that the agent lied on the stand about where he received hard drives containing documents the prosecution used as evidence in their case. Defense attorneys allege those hard drives came from one of Francis' employees and contained doctored documents.
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