A Navy lieutenant commander has been sentenced to 41 months in federal prison for cyberstalking his ex-wife and her boyfriend over several years, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland announced.
Jason Michael Leidel, 45, of Silver Spring, Maryland, was convicted in December 2025 after a two-week jury trial and sentenced by U.S. District Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby. He will serve three years of supervised release following his prison term.
According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Leidel waged a sustained campaign of harassment after his marriage ended. He repeatedly sent emails containing false allegations in an attempt to get his ex-wife fired from her job as a special education teacher and to have her and their children evicted from their home. He also filed bogus child protective services complaints against her.
When his ex-wife began dating someone new, Leidel extended his harassment to her boyfriend, filing false claims that the man was abusing children and emailing his supervisors in an effort to have him investigated and fired, prosecutors said.
The case was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland, with assistance from the FBI, the Department of Transportation Inspector General, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, and police departments in Montgomery County, Maryland, and Virginia Beach.
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