Judge Asked to Do Wedding Before Sentencing

Nachman had been posted in Brazil and the Congo during his tenure as a Foreign Service officer, which began in 2003. Court documents say he had sexual relations in government-provided housing with a 17-year-old girl and 14-year-old girl in the Congo and with a 16-year-old girl in Brazil. He wrote about his encounters in a diary and filmed them. One seized tape was labeled "2004 Congo Sexual Adventures."

Nachman will be sentenced July 11, and federal guidelines call for a nine- to 11-year term, according to court records. Assistant U.S. Attorney Ronald L. Walutes wrote that he will seek a tougher term because "the defendant's abuse of his position could not be more shameful."

"The government objects to the defendant's repeated effort to involve this Court in facilitating his marriage in this Courthouse," wrote Walutes, who said Nachman was "misinformed" when he told Lee that the federal Bureau of Prisons would not allow him to be married in jail.

Traci Billingsley, a Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman, said inmates can wed in prison if the warden approves, there is no legal restriction and the ceremony poses no security threat.

But Nachman won't be walking down the aisle at the Alexandria Detention Center, where he has been held since February. "This has always been the policy," said Harry Covert, a spokesman for Sheriff Dana A. Lawhorne. "There has never been an exception."

Staff researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report.