DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN — A FORMER SHIP CAPTAIN PLEASED GUILTY on Wednesday to the drugging and sexual assault at sea of a Merchant Marine Academy student cadet.
Following Tuesday’s jury selection in federal court in Brooklyn, John Merrone pleaded guilty to all five counts of aggravated sexual abuse, sexual abuse and abusive sexual contact relating to the rape of a 21-year-old U.S. Merchant Marine Academy student cadet. The victim, who is identified in the case as Jane Doe, was working on a vessel under the command of the defendant. When sentenced, Merrone faces up to life in prison.
The case dealt with a September 2019 incident in which Doe was aboard a commercial vessel on the Atlantic Ocean for the USMMA Sea Year Program, where cadets study to be midshipmen and are assigned to a U.S.-flagged merchant vessel to obtain experience.
At his guilty plea, the defendant admitted that he knowingly gave Doe an intoxicant without her knowledge or consent, rendering her incapacitated. He then had sex with her without her consent. Upon returning to the U.S., she sought medical attention, and reported the incident to authorities in 2021.
The Merchant Marine comprises a U.S. government-commissioned fleet of commercial and privately-operated ships.
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