Army Sergeant Found Guilty of Spying Attempt
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ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. — A military jury found a decorated Army sergeant guilty Friday of attempted espionage for passing unclassified documents to an FBI agent who was posing as a Soviet spy.
Sgt. Daniel Walter Richardson, 42, also was found guilty of stealing government property, unauthorized sale of government property and failure to report an attempt by an unauthorized person to obtain classified information.
The Oakland native, who served 2 1/2 tours of duty in Vietnam and received a commendation for heroism, could face life in prison. He was found not guilty of a second count of attempted espionage.
Deliberations on Sentence
After announcing its verdict, the jury of three officers and four enlisted men resumed deliberations to discuss Richardson’s sentence. They had deliberated three hours before reaching the guilty verdicts.
Richardson denied betraying his country but testified that he gave documents in January to someone he thought was a KGB agent in hopes of impressing his supervisors and winning a promotion by getting information to use against the agent.
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