大汉奸柳传志
SENIOR MEMBER
- Joined
- Mar 27, 2015
- Messages
- 3,601
- Reaction score
- -24
- Country
- Location
In jail for producing child pornography, a Top Gun graduate turned flight instructor offered to share his fighter pilot expertise with the Chinese government in exchange for its help in breaking him out, according to federal prosecutors.
Correctional officers seized a signed letter to the Chinese Embassy in which Lt. Daniel Chase Harris indicated he had been wrongly convicted of 31 felonies in U.S. District Court in Norfolk and no longer believed in his country.
"Attached is a list (partial) of information I possess that I believe you would be very interested in having. All I ask in return is that you break me out," reads the letter, which referred to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, F/A-18 Super Hornet, and general carrier operations, among other things.
The letter concluded with a threat to contact the Russian Embassy if the Chinese did not act fast.
"Once out and under your protection, all my knowledge is yours."
Harris, 31, of Virginia Beach, is set to be sentenced Monday on charges he coerced nine girls between the ages of 12 and 17 into making sexual videos of themselves. He faces the possibility of life in prison.
No new charges have been filed in connection with the letter. Harris' defense attorney, Andrew Sacks, denies his client wrote it. Sacks said he was "actively investigating rebuttal evidence to the allegations that he could have authored or sent the letter."
It isn't the first time Harris - a 2005 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy - has denied authoring a potentially damaging letter while in jail. Prosecutors bolstered their case at trial with a series of letters and related text messages that investigators say Harris wrote after his arrest. One of the letters, signed "John Anderson" and mailed to Sacks with the help of a friend, claimed that Anderson had framed Harris because he was in love with his wife and wanted to break up their marriage.
Harris' wife filed for divorce in February 2014, shortly after his arrest.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Yusi said in court documents the Chinese Embassy letter was sent using another inmate's name because Harris knew staffers at the Western Tidewater Regional Jail were screening his mail. She did not say how the letter came to the attention of authorities.
The letter was written on the back of Navy flight schedules similar to those that were admitted into evidence at his trial and included a crude map identifying the location of Harris' cell.
"I believe this letter, the schedule it is written on and a Google search of me in Virginia Beach will prove my sincerity/honesty," the letter said. "The decision is yours, but if you don't act fast it will be gone."
A federal jury convicted Harris in March on the 13th day of his trial. Sacks has announced plans to appeal.
According to court testimony, Harris' victims did not know him by name. Prosecutors argued he used online aliases to contact the girls between 2011 and 2013 while he was stationed in Japan; Guam; Key West, Fla.; and Virginia Beach. He was last assigned to Strike Fighter Weapons School Atlantic at Oceana Naval Air Station.
They say Harris used the aliases to pose as teenage boys and to flirt with the girls. He would eventually talk the girls into posing naked for him while chatting online.
The girls said the flirtation eventually turned to threats. Harris would tell the girls he would post the videos online or show them to the girls' friends if they refused his demands.
The youngest victim was 12 when she met Harris online. She testified she tried to cut off communication with him when she realized he was not a teenage boy, but she couldn't.
The girl tried to kill herself after the ordeal, court documents said.
"Blackmail and extortion are abhorrent crimes," Yusi wrote in court documents. "Somehow, though, Harris found a way to go even beyond abhorrent behavior and commit unspeakable, unfathomable crimes involving young, impressionable girls."
In an interview Tuesday, Sacks maintained Harris was innocent. For the purposes of sentencing, however, he took the position that his client was guilty and his misdeeds were the result of his desire to be the best. He noted that Harris is the grandson of a two-star admiral, the son of a Navy commander pilot, and the son-in-law of a Navy surface warfare commander.
"The defendant became a slave to his own aspirations, his self-expectations, and his efforts to succeed. Attaining those achievements controlled the defendant - whether it was being the best student, the best lacrosse player, the best pilot, the best husband, the best son," Sacks wrote. "At some point, being controlled by events caught up with the defendant, and he rebelled psychologically, unconsciously, unknowingly, seeking instead to wrest some kind of control for himself other than the quests for perfection that had been controlling him for years."
Sacks went on to blame the "John Anderson" letter on his client's "deep denial and repression" and a desire to "avoid the humiliation of child pornography-related conduct."
"When law enforcement activity eventually caught up with the defendant, the realization and recognition of his behavior was too shameful to allow him to admit to his flaws," Sacks wrote.
Federal guidelines recommend Harris receive a life sentence. Prosecutors are seeking at least 50 years. Sacks is asking for 15 years - the mandatory minimum.
Letter to Chinese Embassy
p. 1
p. 2
Prosecutors: Top Gun grad offered Chinese secrets for help with jailbreak | HamptonRoads.com | PilotOnline.com
Correctional officers seized a signed letter to the Chinese Embassy in which Lt. Daniel Chase Harris indicated he had been wrongly convicted of 31 felonies in U.S. District Court in Norfolk and no longer believed in his country.
"Attached is a list (partial) of information I possess that I believe you would be very interested in having. All I ask in return is that you break me out," reads the letter, which referred to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, F/A-18 Super Hornet, and general carrier operations, among other things.
The letter concluded with a threat to contact the Russian Embassy if the Chinese did not act fast.
"Once out and under your protection, all my knowledge is yours."
Harris, 31, of Virginia Beach, is set to be sentenced Monday on charges he coerced nine girls between the ages of 12 and 17 into making sexual videos of themselves. He faces the possibility of life in prison.
No new charges have been filed in connection with the letter. Harris' defense attorney, Andrew Sacks, denies his client wrote it. Sacks said he was "actively investigating rebuttal evidence to the allegations that he could have authored or sent the letter."
It isn't the first time Harris - a 2005 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy - has denied authoring a potentially damaging letter while in jail. Prosecutors bolstered their case at trial with a series of letters and related text messages that investigators say Harris wrote after his arrest. One of the letters, signed "John Anderson" and mailed to Sacks with the help of a friend, claimed that Anderson had framed Harris because he was in love with his wife and wanted to break up their marriage.
Harris' wife filed for divorce in February 2014, shortly after his arrest.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Yusi said in court documents the Chinese Embassy letter was sent using another inmate's name because Harris knew staffers at the Western Tidewater Regional Jail were screening his mail. She did not say how the letter came to the attention of authorities.
The letter was written on the back of Navy flight schedules similar to those that were admitted into evidence at his trial and included a crude map identifying the location of Harris' cell.
"I believe this letter, the schedule it is written on and a Google search of me in Virginia Beach will prove my sincerity/honesty," the letter said. "The decision is yours, but if you don't act fast it will be gone."
A federal jury convicted Harris in March on the 13th day of his trial. Sacks has announced plans to appeal.
According to court testimony, Harris' victims did not know him by name. Prosecutors argued he used online aliases to contact the girls between 2011 and 2013 while he was stationed in Japan; Guam; Key West, Fla.; and Virginia Beach. He was last assigned to Strike Fighter Weapons School Atlantic at Oceana Naval Air Station.
They say Harris used the aliases to pose as teenage boys and to flirt with the girls. He would eventually talk the girls into posing naked for him while chatting online.
The girls said the flirtation eventually turned to threats. Harris would tell the girls he would post the videos online or show them to the girls' friends if they refused his demands.
The youngest victim was 12 when she met Harris online. She testified she tried to cut off communication with him when she realized he was not a teenage boy, but she couldn't.
The girl tried to kill herself after the ordeal, court documents said.
"Blackmail and extortion are abhorrent crimes," Yusi wrote in court documents. "Somehow, though, Harris found a way to go even beyond abhorrent behavior and commit unspeakable, unfathomable crimes involving young, impressionable girls."
In an interview Tuesday, Sacks maintained Harris was innocent. For the purposes of sentencing, however, he took the position that his client was guilty and his misdeeds were the result of his desire to be the best. He noted that Harris is the grandson of a two-star admiral, the son of a Navy commander pilot, and the son-in-law of a Navy surface warfare commander.
"The defendant became a slave to his own aspirations, his self-expectations, and his efforts to succeed. Attaining those achievements controlled the defendant - whether it was being the best student, the best lacrosse player, the best pilot, the best husband, the best son," Sacks wrote. "At some point, being controlled by events caught up with the defendant, and he rebelled psychologically, unconsciously, unknowingly, seeking instead to wrest some kind of control for himself other than the quests for perfection that had been controlling him for years."
Sacks went on to blame the "John Anderson" letter on his client's "deep denial and repression" and a desire to "avoid the humiliation of child pornography-related conduct."
"When law enforcement activity eventually caught up with the defendant, the realization and recognition of his behavior was too shameful to allow him to admit to his flaws," Sacks wrote.
Federal guidelines recommend Harris receive a life sentence. Prosecutors are seeking at least 50 years. Sacks is asking for 15 years - the mandatory minimum.
Letter to Chinese Embassy
p. 1
p. 2
Prosecutors: Top Gun grad offered Chinese secrets for help with jailbreak | HamptonRoads.com | PilotOnline.com
