US Coast Guard cadet says raped by classmate

[Breeze54]

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyID=2006-06-20T203830Z_01_N2081253_RTRUKOC_0_US-CRIME-CADET.xml&archived=False

US Coast Guard cadet says raped by classmate
Tue Jun 20, 2006 4:38pm ET12

NEW LONDON, Connecticut (Reuters) - A former U.S. Coast Guard Academy cadet learned she had been raped by a classmate only when he advised her after the alleged assault to take a morning-after contraceptive pill, the woman testified on Tuesday.

In the first court martial of a cadet in the Coast Guard Academy's history, the witness said she did not remember the June 3, 2005 incident because she had blacked out after drinking two bottles of wine.

After she awoke the following morning, she said Cadet 1st Class Webster Smith, 22, told her she needed contraception.

"I could not believe it would happen," said the woman, who had dated Smith before the assault. "I was looking for the truth. Webster had lied to me so many times in the past."

She brought charges against Smith several weeks later, after learning she was pregnant.

Smith, a senior from Houston who played on the academy's football team, has pleaded not guilty to 10 violations of the military's code of justice, including rape, sodomy, extortion and assault.

His case, in which at least five female cadets are expected to testify, has renewed attention on sexual harassment at America's military academies.

Coast Guard Commander Ronald Bald, the prosecutor, called Smith "a man who manipulates women until they are helpless ... he abused and took advantage of them."

Smith's attorney, Navy Lt. Stuart Kirkby, noted there was no physical evidence of the charges and said the case hinged on the testimony of several victims. "We are here to question those stories," Kirkby said.

The accusations prompted the Coast Guard to begin an Article 32 hearing under the military code of justice, similar to a criminal investigation in civilian courts. Under those rules, Smith is presumed innocent until proven guilty.

He is the first Coast Guard cadet to be accused of rape since the academy began admitting women in 1976. It is the smallest of five U.S. federal military academies, with enrollment of just under 1,000.

[Joey Liberal]

1. Close the academies n/t