Six sub officers snagged in Seattle area drug cases

The Navy recently prosecuted or administratively punished six submarine officers at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor for narcotics offenses, officials confirmed this week.

Two of those officers — Lt. j.g. Riley W. Hoffmann and Lt. Alexander J. Egber — served on the Blue Crew of the ballistic missile submarine Pennsylvania, one of the Navy’s “boomers” that carry nuclear weapons.

Three other officers overseen by Submarine Group 9 have been administratively disciplined for drug offenses this year, according to Lt. Mack Jamieson, a group spokesman.

Declining to elaborate on the nature of their alleged crimes, Jamieson cited federal privacy rules for not providing the names and ranks of the officers who received nonjudicial punishment.

Asked whether military leaders were concerned that this rash of officer drug cases might signal a broader problem plaguing the underwater fleet, Jamieson told Navy Times they “take all allegations of drug use seriously.”

“The Navy has a robust drug prevention program in place to inform sailors not to use illegal drugs and ensure sailors are aware of what can happen if they violate this policy,” he said.

The Navy’s probe began after a junior officer popped positive for an unnamed illegal drug during a routine urinalysis, Jamieson told Navy Times.

Egber is charged with using cocaine, the stimulant Adderall and the synthetic mood-changing drug MDMA —better known by street names “Ecstasy,” “Ex” or “Molly” — in San Francisco and Berkeley, California, in October and November of 2017, according to his charge sheet.

The following month, he used and distributed cocaine in Seattle and also solicited another unnamed person to distribute it, military prosecutors allege.

As part of a pretrial deal, he pleaded guilty on Oct. 9 at a special-court martial hearing to using and possessing the drugs, Jamieson said.

The military judge sentenced him to forfeit $6,000 in pay over the span of a year, a reprimand and two months of restriction on Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor.

Hendren pleaded guilty Oct. 23 to conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman and illegal drug distribution in Seattle, where he lived, according to Navy spokesman Joe Kubistek.

He was sentenced to 150 days behind bars, a letter of reprimand and $20,000 in pay forfeitures over the span of five months, Kubistek said.

“Lt. Hendren was facing charges and then he pleaded guilty to arranging an additional drug deal,” Berens said. “He basically put a civilian in contact with a drug dealer when he was facing charges.”

“Lt. Hendren was placed into handcuffs and leg shackles and then paraded through Navy medical spaces, and then driven to his off-base downtown Seattle apartment and was forced to walk outside on public streets while shackled in uniform,” Hendren’s Navy attorney, Lt. Cmdr. Michael Whitican, added in an Aug. 29 motion.

“Please also know there is some evidence that LT Hendren’s command suspected that he may have an alcohol dependency issue, stemming in part from being involved in two perilous incidents at sea, that was never properly addressed by (Substance Abuse Rehabilitation Program) providers,” the attorneys wrote.