20-year trove of shipboard assault cases now public after data request

Of 116 Naval Criminal Investigative Service case files opened into allegations of sexual assault and misconduct onboard Military Sealift Command ships over a 20-year period, just five show that the case concluded at court-martial or in civilian court.

That information is now public and searchable as a database due to a records request from the Maritime Legal Aid Foundation, which represents those who report being victims of shipboard harassment and abuse. Launched earlier this month, the archive, which covers all relevant cases between 2000 and 2022, shows a broad range of alleged misconduct — most of which has never before been made public. Most of the cases, as far as records show, ended with administrative discipline, or none at all.

Among the cases unearthed in the records trove are a 2018 incident in which a government-contractor engineer onboard the hospital ship USNS Mercy exposed his genitals to the crew of a passing Navy helicopter, later acknowledging to investigators he had “just whipped it out.” Documents show that NCIS found no criminal statute applied and the engineer received a 30-day suspension.

Another case, from 2019, involved a Merchant Marine midshipman — a college student — onboard the dry cargo ship USNS Richard E. Byrd. The midshipman alleged that a navigator repeatedly subjected him to unwanted touching, including around the buttocks and groin. Though the midshipman reported the incidents, the alleged offender denied any wrongdoing, and prosecutors declined to pursue the case, prompting NCIS to close it. It’s not clear from the file if Military Sealift Command ever took administrative action to address the navigator’s behavior.

Some cases in the archive appear borderline, such as the crew member who claimed another crew member’s help with pull-ups led to grazing contact that made her uncomfortable. The command declined to prosecute in that case.

Many clearly emphasize the limited power and recourse accusers have in a domain — Military Sealift Command — that tends to occupy a gap between military and civilian legal authority.

In one 2016 file, a civilian mariner assigned to the amphibious command ship USS Mt. Whitney reported that another civilian had grabbed her, groped her breast and bitten her ear in an attack from behind. The U.S. Department of Justice declined to prosecute, and while the file said ship command was considering taking action, it’s not clear that any was ever taken.

Ryan Melogy, the founder of Maritime Legal Aid Foundation and creator of the database, said in an interview that the archive confirmed what individual cases he’d worked on had shown: that the path to justice for victims isn’t clear, and they’re often on their own, without a victims’ advocate or counsel to guide them and champion them.

Even NCIS, he said, maintains an adversarial relationship with the alleged victim, investigating the accuser’s story as aggressively as the accused.

“You’re trapped. You get assaulted in not only where you live, but where you’re working, not only where you’re working, but where your whole career is,” Melogy said. “You don’t read it in any of these files, ‘we talked to the victim’s lawyer, or we talked to the victim’s advocate.’ It’s just none of that. It’s like there’s nobody.”

Melogy is one of the attorneys representing Elsie Dominguez, an engineer who alleges she was violently raped in 2021 by the civilian captain of the expeditionary fast transport USNS Carson City while the ship was in port. The civilian captain surrendered his license last year, but does not face active criminal charges. In seeking justice in the assault, Dominguez was told her only recourse was to file a worker’s compensation claim with the U.S. Department of Labor as the harm she had suffered was in the performance of her duties onboard the ship.

While Melogy acknowledges sexual assault and misconduct cases are inherently difficult to prosecute, he hopes additional public attention will drive accountability and make it harder for cases to disappear without appropriate action. He also notes that a number of cases involve cadets — students who are on ships as part of their education and are particularly vulnerable.

One 2013 case that did enter the public eye via a short local newspaper story involved a Navy reservist charged with filming female cadets through vent openings in their cabin doors. The offender was finally sentenced to probation in 2016.

“Who knows who’s going to see it,” Melogy said of the new casefile database. “People who are involved in these cases might see it and they might have some insight … or have some additional information. You never know what could happen when you take these kinds of files and bring them out, and let people look at them.”