NAPLES, Italy — A former Navy civilian employee convicted of lying to investigators and forging documents was sentenced to 12 months in prison on Friday.
Steven William Ashton, 42, was convicted in December on six counts of making false statements and falsifying records during an investigation into his housing benefit and a side business. He was acquitted of three other charges, including theft.
The sentence was handed down by a judge for the U.S. District Court for Southern Iowa.
The former NATO and Host Nations Program manager for the Navy’s Europe, Africa and Southwest Asia region, Ashton was arrested at the Naples base in Capodichino in February 2014 after indictment by a grand jury. He was released on bond during an eight-day trial in his home state of Iowa.
Prosecutors claimed Ashton accepted $360,000 in improper housing benefits over nearly 10 years after his move into a condominium belonging to his girlfriend, who would later become his wife. They said he later forged a lease in his father-in-law’s name to explain the benefit to investigators and that he forged other documents to help him extend his stay in Naples.
A second, superseding indictment accused Ashton also of lying and forging documents related to his side venture, Blackgrid Consulting, a firm that connected U.S. contractors to overseas contacts. Prosecutors said Ashton created paperwork showing he had disclosed the business to his superiors and asked for the advice of a military lawyer.
Prosecutors accused Ashton in court pleadings of using his contacts from his Navy job to support his personal business, but they never charged the former Navy civilian with conflict of interest.
Ashton denied forging the documents. Testimony from his brother-in-law, his father-in-law’s estate attorney and even his condo building doorman supported the existence of the lease that prosecutors said he forged.
The trial, at the U.S. District Court for Southern Iowa, also included testimony from agents with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and Ashton’s supervisor. The jury convicted Ashton on the counts related to the business and acquitted him of the theft of the housing benefit and forgery of the lease.
The court recommended Ashton be placed at a federal prison in Pensacola, Fla., or elsewhere on the East Coast. It required him to pay a $600 penalty — far less than the likely forfeiture had he been convicted of theft.
Ashton’s attorney, William P. Ziegelmueller, asked U.S. District Judge Stephanie Rose for a sentence of probation combined with community service. He said his client was shattered by the conviction and would have trouble finding work again, and he noted that Ashton had not regularly seen his wife and two daughters, who live in Italy.
Several of Ashton’s former co-workers made similar requests in letters to Rose.
beardsley.steven@stripes.com
Twitter: @sjbeardsley
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