The U.S. Naval Academy is investigating allegations that three of the school’s football players sexually assaulted a female midshipman at a party last year — an explosive allegation that surfaced Friday as the military faces increased scrutiny over whether it pursues such cases aggressively enough.
The investigation, led by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, has not yielded any arrests, an academy spokesman said. Susan Burke, an attorney for the woman, said the incident occurred at an off-campus “football house” in Annapolis.
The female midshipman got drunk and passed out, Burke said, and woke up remembering little from the party. “She learned from friends and social media that three football players were claiming to have had sexual intercourse with her while she was incapacitated,” Burke said in a statement.
Burke has taken on similar cases and is urging Congress to change the law so that military prosecutors, instead of commanders who lack legal training, have the power to decide whether sexual assault cases should go to trial. The Senate Armed Services Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing Tuesday on that proposal and related bills. Members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and other senior military officers are scheduled to testify.
A recent Pentagon survey estimated that 26,000 service members experienced “unwanted sexual contact” last year, although only 3,374 reports of sexual assault were recorded. One recent case, involving a former Naval Academy history instructor, went to court-martial this week. Marine Corps Maj. Mark A. Thompson, 43, is charged with aggravated sexual assault amid allegations that he had sex last year with students while playing drinking games and strip poker.
First off, the three football players are innocent until proven guilty. Remember the Duke Lacrosse Player Scandal. Those young men were railroaded and set up. On the other hand, there have been many similar attacks associated with various colleges and universities. Often, the athletic departments have played their parts protecting the players whose behavior has been not only outrageous but also illegal.
I recall one event some years ago at a nearby university where a star basketball player was accused of raping a female student. The first thing the athletic department did was disparage the reputation of the female who was assaulted. Those who supported the basketball star vilified the young woman and besmirched her reputation. I remember hearing her call “the Door-Knob” Everyone gets a turn. Isn’t that sort of like saying its ok to rob Bill Gates at gun point? Doesn’t he give away money?
Then there was a young woman named Linda X. who was a friend of mine in college. She drank too much at a fraternity party at a college near Richmond and was gang raped by some of the members of that fraternity. Linda didn’t remain silent and that frat house spent a couple of years on social probation, which brings up the point….
If everyone knows, why didn’t someone do something? Why don’t decent people make sexual predators stop what they are doing? It’s obvious when someone is passed out. If nothing else, call the cops anonymously. The people who witnessed this attack and who talked about it on ‘social media’ are just as guilty if they saw it happen and did nothing. Hopefully, this incident wasn’t part of the code of silence so many young people live (and DIE) by.
If indeed the football players sexually assaulted a midshipman, then they deserve to be arrested, tried and convicted. I certainly hope this young woman doesn’t let these out-of-control, egotistical bastards define her life.
Real men wait for someone to say yes. Cowards, criminals and creeps prey upon drunk girls.
The staggering number of sexual assaults ocurring in the military is utterly reprehensible. This is more of a scandal than Benghazi or anything else. This must stop.