THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 23, 1996 TAG: 9610230462
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JACK DORSEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 44 lines
Inside a heavily guarded command post, the Navy today will begin to court-martial a 30-year-old submarine petty officer for attempting to sell military secrets to Russia.
Petty Officer 1st Class Kurt G. Lessenthien, an instructor at the Navy's Nuclear Power School in Orlando, Fla., has pleaded guilty and faces life in prison on the charge.
He also has pleaded guilty to wrongfully disclosing classified material.
The government elected not to seek the death penalty against Lessenthien, a former crew member aboard four nuclear-powered submarines, including one based in Norfolk.
His trial, most of it closed to the public for national security, is being held in the Atlantic Fleet Command Center.
Navy officials have said it doesn't appear any classified information left American hands. The trial's secrecy is designed to keep it that way.
Lessenthien was arrested April 22 at a motel near Orlando International Airport after he was videotaped turning over documents to an FBI agent posing as a Russian. The agent paid Lessenthien cash and received what the government maintained were documents classified ``Top Secret,'' according to earlier statements.
The government was tipped off that he was ``in the market'' to sell secrets, but he never hooked up with a real foreign agent, Navy officials said at the time. Lessenthien allegedly contacted the Russian Embassy in Washington by telephone to indicate he was willing to provide information.
Lessenthien moved to Orlando last year with his 18-year-old bride and her 6-month-old baby. He wanted to be close to his cancer-stricken mother, but she died before he could get here, his brother, Eric Lessenthien told the Orlando Sentinel newspaper in April.
Lessenthien's attorney, Lt. John S. Jenkins, said Tuesday that most of the testimony will have to be given behind closed doors, but a portion of the defense, presumably involving his client's character, may be open to the public.
Lessenthien, a machinist's mate who has been in the Navy since 1984, served in Norfolk from January 1993 to October 1995 aboard the fast attack submarine Albany.
KEYWORDS: SPY U.S. NAVY ESPIONAGE TRIAL by CNB