A federal jury last week found a former retired Air Force captain not guilty of charges that he stole and destroyed of stealing and destroying government documents last week.
It's a court-room drama that's been playing out on the pages of the Dayton Daily News for the past two years.
Retired Former Capt. John Sember, who according to the Daily News had worked at the National Air and Space Intelligence Center before resigning from the Air Force in early 2013 retired from the service in 2013, then went to work for an undisclosed defense contractor on a top-secret project at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.
According to the Daily News, Sember was removed — at the Air Force's request — from the classified project at the base in early 2014. That's when the federal government said Sember took his work laptop home and erased project documents.
That cost taxpayers between 1,000 and 2,000 hours' worth of labor and research, the government affidavit said.
Sember maintained his innocence, and in turn accused the government of destroying documents during an FBI raid at his home. The search went outside the warrant, and federal agents destroyed documents vital to his defense, Sember said.
A judge at least partially agreed, refusing to allow some evidence because the FBI had seized it from Sember's truck, and the search warrant only covered his house.
