Sex Cases Rarely Go to Trial at Academy

Yet sexual assaults on college campuses are rarely prosecuted, one victims advocate said, and expelling assailants from the academy may amount to more enforcement than is typical elsewhere. Catherine Bath, executive director of Security on Campus Inc., said assault reports at the academy "are actually being taken seriously at some level."

On most college campuses, she said, "rarely do you see expulsions. We'd be happy with suspensions. But they don't want to ruin the young man's life."

Not an Unusual Tack

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It's not only military prosecutors who have taken that approach.

In a 2001 case handled by the Anne Arundel County state's attorney, charges against three academy football players who were accused of raping a midshipman at an off-campus party were dropped in exchange for their resignations from the school.

Academy officials say there have been eight cases in the past five school years in which investigators found sufficient evidence of sexual assault to prosecute, some of which overlapped in the cases studied by The Post. Two involved rape. In those eight cases, seven of the accused midshipmen were removed from the academy, and one was allowed to remain after being punished through the school's administrative conduct system.

A Navy official familiar with many of the cases said that often the woman's memory was blurry, making prosecution difficult. Other times, the official said, the victim did not want to endure a court-martial.

"The people who got other-than-honorable in lieus probably talked to their counsel. Their counsel comes to us and says, 'Look, it's always hard to prove these things. How about if my guy offers a plea that he substantially did what you alleged him to do and you give him an other-than-honorable discharge in lieu of going to court?' " said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of privacy concerns. "And, of course, we go to the victim and make sure everybody's kind of in concurrence with that processing."

Because the school is essentially a military base, the superintendent determines whether a case will be tried criminally or administratively. Or he can drop the charges. He must also endorse resignations, which the secretary of the Navy must approve.

But even after a resignation, if the accused are juniors or seniors, they could be required to reimburse the Navy from $60,000 to $130,000 for their education or serve two years as an enlisted sailor or Marine. Midshipmen who resign in their first two years do not have to reimburse the government.

In August, a Pentagon task force examining sexual assault and harassment at the Naval Academy and at West Point found that the Army academy convened five courts-martial and secured three convictions in sex-related crimes over a 10-year period, the report says. The Naval Academy had one court-martial and conviction during that time.

The task force attributed the low number of prosecutions overall to the reluctance of victims to report crimes. Studies show that only about 5 percent of sexual-assault victims on college campuses report the crime. But the task force also pointed out a problem with the military rape statute: It requires proof that intercourse occurred "by force and without consent."

The most common type of sexual-assault cases reported at the academies are acquaintance rape, "which usually do not involve the use of force necessary to obtain a conviction," the task force reported. A new, expanded military statute goes into effect next year to make it easier to prosecute acquaintance rapes.

That change in law, and pressure on the academy to make its campus friendlier to women in the wake of so many critical studies, could mean more cases going to trial.

"I think you're going to see fewer midshipmen walk away from sex charges like you did a few years ago," said Charlotte E. Cluverius, a former Navy lawyer and academy law instructor who is now in private practice. "I think we're in the middle of seeing that now."

Staff writer Eric Rich contributed to this report.