QUANTICO, Va. -- A military jury cleared Staff Sgt. Robert Stufflebeam Thursday of charges he had sex with Soviet prostitutes while serving as a Marine guard at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.
The jury of five officers and three enlisted personnel also found Stufflebeam innocent of charges that he lied to investigators and failed to report his alleged involvement with the Soviet prostitutes to his superiors.
But the eight-member jury did convict Stufflebeam on two counts of dereliction of duty for frequenting Moscow bars the military deemed off-limits to Marines. He faces up to six months in prison on each of those counts.
Sentencing was scheduled for Friday at 9:30 a.m. EDT.
Stufflebeam, 25, of Bloomington, Ill., stood at attention as jury President Marine Col. Edmund Gaucher read the verdicts on each charge. The jury deliberated for about 2 hours after the defense abruptly rested its case without presenting any witnesses.
Moments after hearing the verdict, Stufflebeam shook hands with his attorneys, who have been defending him in the court-martial, which began Sept. 1 at the Quantico Marine base in northern Virginia.
Stufflebeam was accused of having sex with two Soviet prostitutes, of failing to report the contacts to authorities and then lying about the incidents to investigators. He faced up to 14 years in prison if convicted.
Government prosecutors concluded their case earlier Thursday without revealing the nationalities of the prostitutes who allegedly had sex with Stufflebeam in 1985 -- a key element in the case against the Marine.
Three prosecution witnesses, all subordinates of Stufflebeam at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow in the 1985 'sex-for-secrets' scandal, testified that the former Marine guard led them to bars known to be frequented by prostitutes.
But the three witnesses said they were unsure of the women's nationalities.
Under military law, Marine security guards are forbidden from having contact with citizens of Eastern Bloc nations or countries considered hostile to the United States.
Stufflebeam, who pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him, told Naval Investigative Service agents that the women he met at an off-limits bar in the summer of 1985 said they were Italian.
NIS agent James Pender testified Thursday that Stufflebeam first denied, then admitted, to having sex with two prostitutes he had met at an off-limits bar.
'He said initially they were Italian,' Pender said. 'I think he knew they were Russian.'
Shortly after Pender concluded his testimony, the prosecution rested its case.
Moments later, defense attorney James Bagley announced, 'Having considered the evidence before the court, the defense rests.'
In closing arguments for the prosecution, Marine Capt. Neal Puckett asked the jury to consider Stufflebeam's confession to Pender and another INS agent on March 29.
Concerning the nationality of the women, Puckett said: 'It was in Moscow and he went to a Soviet apartment. Who else would it have been? Soviets and prostitutes.'
Bagley's lengthy defense argument pointed to lapses in embassy security and the credibility of a Marine witness who had been disciplined by Stufflebeam.
He also said Stufflebeam's confession was involuntary and was written by NIS agents who interpreted the Marine's statements and cast him in a dark light.
Stufflebeam was arrested March 29 as NIS agents began investigating Marine Sgt. Clayton Lonetree, one of Stufflebeam's subordinates. Stufflebeam was not charged with espionage.
Lonetree is serving a 30-year prison sentence at the Quantico base as the he first Marine ever convicted of espionage. Two other Marines face lesser charges in the case.
