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Montgomery County residents Jason Michael Leidel, 43, an active-duty commissioned officer of the United States Navy and Sarah Elizabeth Sorg, 43, a senior trial attorney for the US Department of Transportation, both of Silver Spring, have been charged for their roles in knowingly bullying the officer’s former wife.
The charges against the pair include aggravated identity theft, fraud related to a protected computer, cyberstalking and conspiracy to commit cyberstalking.
According to the affidavit, Leidel and his wife were married in 2005 and they had two children. The officer has served in the military since 2003, first in the US Air Force, and then in the Navy.
In 2017, while on active duty with the Navy, Leidel was accepted to a Ph.D. program at the Uniformed Services University for the Health Sciences (USUHS) in Bethesda, Maryland, and reported for his assignment in June 2018, according to prosecutors.
Two months later, in August 2018, Leidel and his wife permanently separated, with her and the children returned to Virginia Beach, Virginia, where they had lived prior to Leidel’s USUHS assignment.
Prosecutors said that that since their separation, Leidel has “engaged in an ongoing and extensive scheme to harass his ex-wife, interfere with court proceedings relating to domestic relations issues, and perpetrate fraud on courts in both Montgomery County and Virginia Beach.
It is alleged that among other things, Leidel used spoofed and fraudulent email accounts and phone numbers to falsely create communications purporting to be from his ex-wife, causing criminal charges to be filed against her that disrupted her employment, and interfered with her personal life.
Leidel also allegedly sent emails from compromised accounts and spoofed accounts in order to portray his ex-wife as a mentally unstable parent, with the hope that he would gain custody of their minor children in order to deprive his ex-wife of his retirement accounts and pension in their divorce agreement, according to prosecutors.
The affidavit states that Sorg shared her Maryland home with Leidel and was present when a search warrant was executed at their Silver Spring residence.
Prosecutors made note that “Sorg was aware of information that linked multiple fraudulent online accounts used by Leidel to harass and victimize his ex-wife as early as August 2020 and has allegedly continued to provide assistance to Leidel to harass the victim, interfere with court proceedings, and perpetrate fraud.”
If convicted, Leidel and Sorg each face:
- A maximum sentence of five years in federal prison for conspiracy to commit cyberstalking and for cyberstalking;
- A mandatory sentence of two years in federal prison, consecutive to any other sentence imposed, for aggravated identity theft;
- One year in federal prison for fraud related to a protected computer.
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