Name: Don Santarini
Case: United States v. Santarini NMCCA 200201454
Sentence adjudged 1 November 2001.
Decided 30 April 2004
Plea: Guilty
Charges: possessing child pornography
Military Branch: U.S. Navy
Listed In National Sex Offenders Registry? NO
The appellant was tried by a general court-martial composed of a military judge, sitting alone. Pursuant to his pleas, the appellant was convicted of: (1) violating the Department of Defense Joint Ethics Regulation by wrongfully using a United States Government computer to download and store sexually explicit images; (2) knowingly possessing a computer hard drive that contained images of child pornography in a building owned by, leased to, or otherwise used by or under the control of the United States Government; and, (3) knowingly possessing a computer hard drive and computer disks that contained images of child pornography that had been transported in interstate commerce, in violation of Articles 92 and 134, Uniform Code of Military Justice, 10 U.S.C. §§ 892 and 934, and 18 U.S.C.
§ 2252A.
The appellant was sentenced to confinement for a period of 18 months and a bad-conduct discharge. Pursuant to a pretrial agreement, the convening authority deferred execution of the automatic forfeiture of the appellant’s pay. In his action, pursuant to the pretrial agreement, the convening authority waived the automatic forfeiture of pay for a period of 6 months.
After carefully considering the record of trial, the appellant's two assignments of error, and the Government's response, we conclude that the findings and the sentence are correct in law and fact and that no error materially prejudicial to the substantial rights of the appellant was committed. Arts. 59(a) and 66(c), UCMJ.
The charges relate to the appellant’s January 2001 misconduct in violation of Department of Defense Directive 5500.7-R (Joint Ethics Regulation), ¶ 2-301 (Ch.2, 25 Mar 1996), and 18 U.S.C. § 2252A at the Strategic Weapons Facility Pacific, Bangor, Washington, and at the appellant’s home in Bremerton, Washington. The Joint Ethics Regulation prohibits, in part, “put[ting] Federal Government communications systems to uses that would reflect adversely on DoD or the DoD Component.
In the appellant’s first assignment of error, he asserts that where he pled guilty pursuant to an unconstitutional definition of “child pornography” (18 U.S.C. § 2256(8)(b)) in the CPPA, his pleas to Specifications 1 and 2 of the original Charge were improvident in light of the Supreme Court’s decision in Free Speech Coalition. The appellant suggests that this court should dismiss both Specifications 1 and 2 of the original Charge, and remand his case for a new sentencing hearing. We disagree.
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Sexual Offender
Conviction Records
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An Unofficial Site
Of United States Military
Sexual Offender
Conviction Records
Not Associated With The U.S. Military Or Government
Don Santarini
Missile Technician First Class (E-6), U.S. Navy
Convicted Sex Offender
Possession Of Child Pornography
