Former Navy Ship Commander Heads to Prison
Several news outlets are reporting that former Navy Commanding Officer Lance Esswein has been sentenced to 19 years in federal prison after being convicted of intent to distribute meth and drug trafficking-related crimes.
Former Navy commander headed to federal prison
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – A 58-year-old Portland man has been sentenced to 19 years in federal prison following his conviction of conspiring to possess with the intent to distribute meth and possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, announced U.S. Attorney Jennifer B. Lowery.
Lance Esswein previously served as the commanding officer of the U.S. Navy Minesweeper U.S.S. Ardent. He was also the risk assessment manager for Nueces County and worked as an adjunct professor at Texas A&M Corpus Christi.
He pleaded guilty Jan. 30, 2020.
Then…
Esswein had sold more than 100 grams of meth, after which authorities executed a search warrant at his Portland residence. There, they discovered additional meth and numerous firearms staged around the residence. He also had loaded assault rifles positioned just inside the front door.
The investigation revealed significant additional quantities of meth, other narcotics and firearms at storage units and vehicles Esswein controlled. They found a total of 36 weapons, including stolen firearms and firearms with missing serial numbers.
USS Ardent (MCM-12)
In the following article, they talk about his “less than honorable discharge from the U.S. Navy,” so maybe character flaws started cracking along the seam back then.
Former Nueces County risk assessment manager headed to federal prison
The 58-year-old previously served as the commanding officer of the U.S. Navy minesweeper U.S.S. Ardent, and worked as an adjunct professor at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
According to the release, the court heard details of Esswein’s “less than honorable discharge from the U.S. Navy,” and his termination from Nueces County.
“The court also heard Esswein had offered to arrange the murder of two local police officers to prevent their testimony in an unrelated drug case,” the release states.
DoD Manpower Data Center – Lance Esswein
I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that they are probably going to remove his name and honorary plaque on the ship’s galley.
Such a shame.
Category: "Teh Stoopid", Navy
So, I have to wonder if all of those awards that say “In the finest traditions of the naval service” might have been a bit of a stretch in his case.
how do you go from navy commander to dope slinger? wtf
58 Driver,
16 years Navy = 0% = $0 retirement.
While his old buds are buying shore condos and Porsches,
he’s feelin’ the pinch.
But hey, he has his Navy GlamourShot on Instagram.
And it looks like it’s going to stay there awhile.
MarineDad61-
One of the articles I read stated he was ‘retired’ from the Navy with a less than honorable discharge. I didn’t know that was possible. I couldn’t find anything on the google machine indicating what caused his departure from the Navy. Any insight? (You noted 16 years Navy)
The Closer,
No insight, just the quicky FOIA above,
and the obvious.
He has an employment problem history ever since.
I suspect that “retired from the Navy” may be an error on the part of the journalist who wrote the article, possibly based on misinformation provided by the accused. I don’t remember 15-year retirements being offered during 2006, particularly as Iraq was getting hot then (the surge started about a year later).
I guess it’s possible if the retirement was medical AND he was facing court-martial charges at the time. He might have wrangled a plea deal that allowed him to retire medically but also do so “for the good of the service” in lieu of court-martial, which typically means an OTH discharge for the officer recipient. Dunno.
Wouldn’t be the first time someone had made false claims along those lines. If I recall correctly, Bernath was claiming he’d “retired” as a lawyer after his CA law license was suspended as well as after he’d actually been disbarred.
I wonder who’s gonna pop his cherry in the showers? Sounds like he’s not exactly an upstanding pillar of the community!
He do got a purty mouth. (que banjo music)
Lance.
His name is actually LANCE.
Oh FFS, the jokes write themselves.
Dumbass.
I have an unrelated to the post question about the new commenting format. Please help.
I notice in the longer replies there is a series of periods (…) at the end and no more text visible after them. How do I get at the rest of those longer comments?
Thanks in advance for any assistance on this.
There should be a “Read More >>” after the three dots (…) but if the dialogue box is white, you may not see it. Hover over it and you should be able to click.
Dave Hardin,
Can you change the COLOR of [Read more <<]
from white… to anything else?
On longer comments, the comment block is cut short,
loses it’s new BIUS properties,
and then followed by Read more <<
In white. White on tan… or white on white (not visible).
Thanks. 🙂
Are you saying this is white on white crime?
GO PLACIDLY amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexatious to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism.
You are showing your age, Dave…😉😎
🎶”You Are A Child Of The Universe”..🎵🎶
And we are showing ours considering we use to listen to this song when we were younger as well as hanging a poster on our wall with those words…
ninja,
Assuming Dave’s soliloquy was a length test,
it passes. 🙂
Hmm… seems the “Read More” issue will take a bit to fix.
https://youtu.be/rsgs7vtqKGA
Ahh…
Feng Shui, all is in balance and harmony
This is all ChipNASA’s fault. 😉
(Not to call him out or anything.)
What the monkey fuck, pink robe gap did *I* do??? (THIS time)
😱😳🤔🤣
Just singling out your propensity for “Read More >>” posts. 😉
I extended the number of words that will be displayed before the “Read Me” truncates the comment. Thanks for pointing that out, I will get it fixed after I am finished doing naughty things.
An alternate way to changing the backdrop of white to something else (I like white in a non-white supremacist way) is to make the “Read More >>” a light gray.
Mick,
and the list begins….
Lance corporal punishment.
Lance Ass Wine.
Lance Ass Whine.
From 2017:
“Risk Manager Reports Suspension For Refusing Drug Test”:
https://www.businessinsurance.com/article/00010101/NEWS06/912314486/Risk-manager-reports-suspension-for-refusing-drug-test–
“The Risk manager for Nueces County in Texas reported that he was suspended without pay for 90 days for refusing to take a random drug test..”
“Nueces County commissioners suspended Lance Esswein on June 30 for insubordination; on June 11 he stopped by the television news station to tell his story.”
“Esswein told a reporter he was suspended because he missed two meetings with Nueces County Judge Loyd Neal, failed to return one of the judge’s phone calls and refused to take two random drug tests. He claimed that taking a random drug test violates his constitutional rights..”
“… He claimed that taking a random drug test violates his constitutional rights..”
Spoken like a Barracks Lawyer.
“He was also the risk assessment manager”
That was a great cover.
First you start using, then you start selling to pay for your own habit. I’ve seen people I grew up/worked with head down that path. Luckily, they didn’t get that deep, and they got the help they need to pullout that “death spiral”.
A few alternate titles for this article:
“Dealing Meth to Sniffing Crack”
“Commanding Orificer”
“He also had loaded assault rifles positioned just inside the front door”
Nothing wrong with that unless you are a felon.
I would think one would be enough though.
“they are probably going to remove his name and honorary plaque on the ship’s galley.”
The award for second place is in the lady’s room.
Yeah; I see what you did there SFC D.
Someone always has to bring THAT up, regardless of the thread topic. Always.
— SIGH —
It was my day to be “that guy”. Check the roster.
Ha!
Gotta wonder if this dumbass has assessed and will be able to manage the risk from the lance of Bubba, Thor, Julio, and Mr. “Tiny”. If he was peddling his “product” around the campus of A&M, that might help explain the results from the Tide Aggie game.
As Mick so eloquently stated…Dumbass!
Clearly we need Daddy Gov to spend moar of our moneies to stop navel (sic) off-icers from walking down the road of addiction.
Or maybe, just maybe, “Just Say NO!”?
Forgot to comment this too, from Notorious B.I.G.’s Ten Crack Commandments:
If you don’t know, now you know n***a.
https://medium.com/everybody-got-choices/rules-to-the-dope-game-c18700a978df
Esswein’s Instagram is still up… and with a NAVY photo.
To lure the women?
The photo is older than Instagram.
Like women do with GlamourShots.
https://www.instagram.com/lanceesswein/
“Esswein”..How do you pronounce that?
Is it like “ass whine”?
It’s gonna be…..
26L,
Deja voo doo.
Check up above, on the replies to Mick.
lolol 🙂
Literal translation would be “eat VIenna”. The German word “Ess” translates to English as “eat”, and “wien” is the German language name for the city of Vienna.
Wow.
Talk about an off duty part-time job.
Maybe someone else on the ship already scored the highly coveted Amway distributorship.
Minesweeper captain, eh? I’m sure his downward spiral started when he couldn’t figure out who ate all those strawberries. 😉
Someone should have explained to him that Breaking Bad was a fiction series not a how to infomercial….
I see what you did there. He can meet me outside if he wants to do anything about it. I’m drunk so it’ll be a fair fight.
Lt Keefer is making up a song about him: “Ol’ Meth-stain.” 😀
That scene from “Mutiny” was magnificent.
RIP, José Ferrer.
Well no, Breaking Bad was a cautionary tale of why this was a terrible idea. White lost everything he ever cared about while hurting everyone around him. That’s how the drug trade works. As unrealistic as the show was in many regards that is the part they got very right.
*SIGH*
“Fort Bragg MP Did Drug Deal From Patrol Car, Charges Say”
https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2022/01/27/fort-bragg-mp-did-drug-deal-from-patrol-car-charges-say/
“A junior enlisted military police soldier stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, faces a general court-martial in May over allegations that he used and distributed drugs, including an incident in which he
allegedly did a drug deal from an MP vehicle.”
” SPC Jacob A. Dickerson, 21st MP CO, 503rd MP BN, 16th MP BDE is accused of using and distributing “some amount of Oxycodone” while on post in September 2021.”
“He also was “derelict” in his duties as an MP because he “coordinated a drug deal for Oxycodone while on duty and by using a Military Police vehicle”.
Dickerson also faces several felony civilian charges in Cumberland County, North Carolina: one charge of running a drug distribution site, two counts of distributing
opiates, and one charge of conspiring to distribute opiates.”
…Bragg seems to be having trouble with their MPs – one drove out to Longs, SC last week and blew away a romantic rival.
Get ready to “HOT” bunk there buddy.
*chuckle*
It’s ironic, because I remember back when I was a lowly junior sailor stationed onboard in 5th fleet, a lot of us referred to it as “cell block 1-2.”
About the only thing worse than that would be if a former “Sherrif of the year” got addicted to meth and then ended up getting arrested and imprisoned in the jail that was named in his honor: https://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/former-sheriff-arrested-sent-jail-named-him-153854700.html