U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte sentenced Kenneth Wayne Ford, Jr., 34, of Waldorf, Maryland, to 72 months in prison, followed by 3 years of supervised release for unlawfully possessing classified information related to the national defense, and making a false statement to a U.S. government agency.
Ford was convicted on Dec. 15, 2005 after a two week trial.
According to evidence presented at trial, Ford was employed by the National Security Agency (NSA) in Maryland between June 2001 and late 2003. On Jan. 11, 2004, FBI agents executed a search warrant at Ford’s residence in Waldorf, and discovered sensitive classified information throughout his house, including numerous Top Secret documents in 2 boxes in Ford’s kitchen.
Ford was arrested on January 12, 2004. Evidence presented during the trial indicated that Ford took home the classified information on the last day of his employment at NSA in December 2003, when Ford was to start working in the private sector on a classified contract for a defense contractor.
Ford wrote out a statement on the night the search was conducted, admitting to taking home the documents, but at trial argued that the statement had been coerced by the FBI.
Witnesses from both the NSA and the Central Intelligence Agency testified that the classified documents, some of which were displayed to the jury in edited form, were extremely sensitive and related to the national defense of the United States.
Testimony at trial also showed that on Oct. 5, 2004, Ford made a false statement in connection with his submission to Lockheed Martin of a government clearance form known as a Standard Form 86.
Ford stated on that form that he had been falsely arrested by the FBI, had no police record and no pending charges against him.
“Government employees who betray