Posted on October 7, 2022 at 10:49 p.m. by
The Maritime Executive
A captain with an American license has been accused of assaulting two cadets during an Atlantic voyage. The Coast Guard Investigative Service has investigated the case, but the US Department of Justice will not pursue criminal charges, according to CNN.
Two cadets told the Coast Guard that Capt. John Merrone, a 22-year-old Merchant Navy veteran and Florida resident, drugged and assaulted them in his cabin. According to a Coast Guard administrative complaint obtained by CNN, the two cadets were called to the captain’s cabin, and he offered them both a drink. They told the Coast Guard they had become incapacitated, at which point the captain allegedly raped one and attempted to assault the other.
The U.S. Coast Guard filed the complaint in August as part of an action against Merrone’s license. A separate criminal investigation was closed without charge.
Merrone had a similar encounter with law enforcement ten years earlier. In 2011, he was charged with forcible confinement, sexual assault and aggravated assault in connection with an alleged assault in the Florida Keys. The woman involved in the case testified that she was beaten and raped in Merrone’s apartment. A jury found Merrone guilty of false imprisonment and two counts of simple battery, but an appeals court overturned the conviction in 2013.
Merrone retained her license and continued to sail as recently as this year.
The case follows the high-profile ‘Midshipman X’ account of a sexual assault on a Maersk Line Limited ship. The unnamed victim – who later identified herself as Hope Hicks (USMMA ’22) – alleged she was raped by an engineer on an MLL ship, and she reported that sexual misconduct and harassment were widespread in his program. The academy and the US Maritime Administration have temporarily suspended the Sea Year training program to implement new safety measures.
