Midshipmen Testify on Discovery Of Sex Tapes

Extortion Was Aim, Defense Contends

A former U.S. Naval Academy midshipman testified yesterday that he stumbled on secret sex tapes of him and eight other midshipmen at the Annapolis home of a Navy physician and that he later searched for and found a surveillance camera hidden inside an air purifier in one of the home's bedrooms.

The former midshipman, Addy Strasdas, said he discovered the recordings in January when he played a disc, labeled as a lecture, that he had found in the bedroom of the physician, Cmdr. Kevin J. Ronan. Some of those recordings, discovered while Ronan was away on an overnight trip with an academy gymnastics team, were viewed in open court during the doctor's court-martial at the Washington Navy Yard.

"Obviously, I was shocked," Strasdas said, "and I did what I thought was best."

He provided some of them to the Navy, which in turn charged Ronan with conduct unbecoming an officer, illegal wiretapping and obstruction of justice.

But Strasdas, who was expelled for academic reasons, acknowledged on cross-examination that he did not hand over all the recordings, contrary to his testimony at an earlier hearing. He said he initially gave two recordings to his stepfather and one to his attorney.

Strasdas said he kept the recordings because he wanted to have them in case the Navy took no action against Ronan, a high-ranking officer. "We felt that the Navy would try to cover this up," he said.

Ronan's defense attorney has maintained that Ronan did not make the recordings and that they were a product of an extortion plot to secure money from the physician. The defense acknowledged that Ronan bought the video equipment but said he did so only to ensure that midshipmen, some of whom had access to his house, were not having parties while he was away.

On cross-examination, Strasdas admitted falsifying academy transcripts when he applied for a job and sending the academy a fabricated admissions letter from another university in an attempt to delay a requirement that he fulfill his military service or repay his tuition.

Ronan, who sponsored Strasdas and others in a program that allows midshipmen to stay at private homes on weekends and holidays, served as the doctor for Navy athletic teams and as the medical officer assigned to the dormitory where midshipmen live.

Through his attorney, Ronan requested that the recordings played in court be directed away from the public and viewed only by the military panel and both sides in the case.

That request was denied, setting up an extended viewing of the explicit recordings in the presence of another former midshipman who testified that he, too, was shocked to learn of the tapes. Navy Ensign McKenzie Plank, an academy graduate, testified that he found additional explicit recordings in a drawer in Ronan's bedroom when he and Strasdas further searched the residence.

The defense also attacked Plank's credibility, suggesting that a device visible on a bed while he was taped having sex with his girlfriend might have been used to control the recording equipment. Defense attorney William T. Ferris also suggested that Plank appeared to stare at the camera at least a half-dozen times.

"You seem to be looking toward the camera," Ferris said.

Plank testified that, at the time, he was merely watching television.