HAYWARD — The Marine Corps has charged a Hayward police officer on military leave in a case involving the alleged mishandling of classified information on terrorists, authorities said.

Master Sgt. Reinaldo Pagan was among two men charged last Thursday in what a Marine spokesman said was part of an ongoing investigation. Gunnery Sgt. Eric L. Froboese is the other man charged.

Both men are assigned to active duty at Camp Pendleton in San Diego County while their case is adjudicated, Major Jason Johnston said.

Pagan has been a Hayward police officer for nine years, police Lt. Christine Orrey said. His age was not immediately known. The charges against the two men were the result of an investigation into an alleged information theft ring involving classified files, Johnston said.

The charges were first reported last Friday by the San Diego Union-Tribune. A source who did not reveal an identity reported Pagan's association with the Hayward Police Department to the Daily Review earlier this week, which the department confirmed.

Pagan is charged with one count of dereliction of duty and orders violation, Johnston said. Froboese is charged with dereliction of duty and orders violation, conspiracy and wrongful transmission of classified information.

Johnston said a Marine investigator assigned to review the case will recommend that a convening authority either order a court-martial, issue administrative punishment or dismiss

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the case.

The Union-Tribune reported that the two men are accused of sharing secret files with members of the Los Angeles County Terrorist Early Warning Group, a multiagency task force, and that their case figures in a probe involving the alleged theft of confidential files on terrorists, which has already produced one conviction.

Johnston said he could not confirm either assertion. Hayward Police Chief Ron Ace said the department will review Pagan's status when the case is resolved.

"We really can't react to something until we know what the conclusion is," Ace said. "We're going to treat it like we would any other case ... I'm choosing to give him the benefit of the doubt just like we would anyone else."

Gideon Rubin can be reached at 510-293-2469 or grubin@bayareanewsgroup.com.