Posted on 11/09/2006 8:09:05 PM PST by CedarDave
The former Los Alamos National Laboratory subcontractor at the center of a federal security breach investigation faced three hours of questioning from FBI agents on Wednesday, according to her lawyer.
Attorney Stephen Aarons said that Jessica Quintana, 22, is being open with investigators and is hoping to avoid jail time for apparently mishandling classified documents.
The FBI is investigating how hundreds of those LANL documents— in both paper and electronic form— ended up in Quintana's mobile home.
She has not been charged with a crime.
Aarons has said that Quintana, who worked as an archivist at the lab, took the materials home to meet a work deadline and didn't intend to distribute the information to a third party.
Unauthorized removal and retention of classified material is a misdemeanor that carries a maximum sentence of a year in prison and up to a $100,000 fine. Quintana is in the process of negotiating with the U.S. Attorney's Office over what, if any, charges will be filed, according to Aarons. He stressed that no legal agreements have been made, although he hopes Quintana won't go to jail.
~~ snip~~
Los Alamos police found the classified material during an Oct. 17 drug investigation. Quintana's roommate, Justin Stone, was jailed on a probation violation and for possession of drug paraphernalia, a charge to which he pleaded no contest.
Before being laid off, Quintana had access to LANL documents classified as "secret" but not "top secret." Her job involved converting paper documents to electronic form.
Authorities have remained tight-lipped about the nature of the classified materials found at Quintana's home.
Most but not all of the documents were classified at low levels and were 20 to 30 years old, LANL said last week.
A spokesman denied media reports that the material contained sensitive weapons-design data.
(Excerpt) Read more at abqjournal.com ...
Wouldnt it be more appropriate to have the contract immediately pulled from the University of California for strike two and strike 3? Is there anyone sane left in government?
Okay, so if she is guilty, why won't this be her sentence???
because if they arrest her, she has the right to remain silent - and right now, finding out if she passed the documents to someone else, is far more important.
she may even have to be given immunity. but the bottom line is, we have to find out who got those documents. we can do that by trying to work with her, or waterboarding her, but we have to find out.
Was Richardson ever given a sentence for his mishandling things at Los Alamos? And again, why did Berger get off?
I found it interesting to look at the opening page of the Nat'l Archives website. The Archives reaches out to the public, asking for assistance in hunting down missing documents. Apparently there is a large trade in stole documents and the theft never lets up.
It's sad, really.
the piece said she gave them to 3td party folks.
secrets have been leaking outta New Mexico like fat in Hillary's panties.
where does it say that?
5th sentence down.
The "third party", as far as the information released indicates, was her roommate who wanted the flashdrives to download music. He may have taken one or more without her knowledge.
I am sure that now the rats are in power, they will fix this.
No worries.
The posted article doesn't say she gave the documents to a 3rd party, just that she denied intending to do that with the documents they found in her possession. Of course, there's no telling what she might have done with documents they didn't find.
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