Cargo Ship Captain Admits Drugging, Raping Cadet

A former cargo ship captain pleaded guilty on Wednesday to drugging and raping a 21-year-old US Merchant Marine Academy cadet who was working on the vessel as part of the academy's Sea Year training program. John Merrone, 53, pleaded guilty just as his trial was about to start in Brooklyn federal court. He admitted that he had sexual intercourse with the cadet without her consent "on the ship, in the middle of the ocean" after knocking her out with an intoxicant in 2019, the AP reports. A jury had been picked and the woman, identified only as Jane Doe, was in the courthouse waiting to testify.

• Prosecutors were also planning to call as witnesses several other women who have accused Merrone of sexual assault over the last three decades. Merrone was previously convicted of false imprisonment and battery after a Florida Keys waitress accused him of having sex with her against her will, but an appeals court overturned the verdict and prosecutors didn't retry the case.

The former cadet, who still works in the maritime industry, watched through tears from the courtroom gallery as Merrone impassively said "guilty" to each of five charges, including aggravated sexual abuse and abusive sexual contact. Her lawyer, Ryan Melogy, said she turned to him afterward and said, "It's over." "Sex crimes are notoriously difficult to prosecute in general," Melogy said. "When they occur in the middle of the ocean aboard a ship, the level of difficulty involved in prosecuting them probably increases exponentially."

• Merrone faces up to life in prison, but Assistant US Attorney Kayla Bensing said federal sentencing guidelines call for about 15 to 19 years behind bars. Merrone's lawyers said they think that estimate is too high. The guidelines are advisory, and the judge, Ramon E. Reyes Jr., could sentence him to more or less time. Merrone will remain free on bail until sentencing, which is scheduled for Dec. 22.

• According to prosecutors, Merrone began sending the cadet and another student Facebook messages a few weeks before they boarded his ship, the 623-foot-long Liberty Glory, for a voyage from Bahrain to Corpus Christi, Texas. Prosecutors said that on Sept. 9, 2019, after more than a month onboard and with a little more than a week left in the journey, Merrone messaged the cadet and her friend asking that they come to his room for a "soda."
• The women acquiesced, prosecutors said, and the captain poured them each a drink from an already open bottle of alcohol, then opened a new bottle and poured a drink for himself. Soon after having some of the drinks, the women "lost recollection of the remainder of the evening," prosecutors said.
• The cadet awoke the next morning in her bed wearing only a shirt and bra but not pants or underwear, feeling nauseous; she had a headache and felt vaginal discomfort, prosecutors said. Her friend awoke with stomach cramping and a debilitating headache, prosecutors said. She did not accuse Merrone of sexual assault.
• Merrone called the cadet to his room and told her he had "fun last night," that "one thing led to another" and asked her to do it again, prosecutors said. After the cadet told him she didn't remember what happened and that the encounter was not consensual, Merrone offered her money, which she declined, prosecutors said.
• The US Merchant Marine Academy, in Kings Point, New York, trains students to work in the commercial shipping industry. In 2016, the academy temporarily shut down the Sea Year program, which sends cadets to work on container ships, oil tankers, passenger liners, and other vessels, amid sexual abuse and bullying concerns. The program resumed in 2017 on vessels operated by three companies that the academy said had implemented new preventive policies.
• The Sea Year program was suspended again in 2021 after another cadet said a cargo ship supervisor got her drunk and raped her. It resumed after more safety protocols were put in place.