Midshipmen Are Indicted In Auto Theft Operation Latest Incident Stirs More Waves For Naval Academy
A federal grand jury on Thursday indicted two current and three former midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy in what officials said was a scheme to steal and sell automobiles.
Thursday’s set of indictments is the latest in a series of legal problems involving midshipmen.
According to the indictment, the group stole eight cars, seven of them four-wheel-drive sports utility vehicles, in the New York City area. They were transported to Maryland, given fictitious titles and bills of sale, and then sold.
The indictment, charging conspiracy to transport, receive, and sell motor vehicles across state lines, follows a six-month investigation by the FBI, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and Maryland State Police.
Capt. Tom Jurkowsky, a spokesman for the academy, called the indictments and other recent incidents unfortunate but said an ethics program at the academy was designed to make sure such things did not continue to happen. “We want to get beyond this and start moving on and keep moving on,” he said.
In recent weeks, two midshipmen were accused of sexual assault. In one case, Jeremy Coal, 19, of Grand Rapids, Mich., was accused of fondling a 2-year-old child while visiting her family’s home on March 26, Annapolis city police said.
Another midshipman, Scott Ward, also of Grand Rapids, Mich., the third-highest-ranking midshipman on campus, is being held at the Marine Corps brig in Quantico, Va. An academy spokeswoman said that although he has not been formally charged, he is being held after complaints made by four female midshipmen that he sexually assaulted and harassed them.
And in October, 24 midshipmen were implicated in a drug scandal after two of them were accused of buying LSD in a motel room in Glen Burnie, Md.
In addition, James Barry, an assistant professor who teaches leadership and ethics at the academy, created a stir several weeks ago when he wrote on the op-ed page of The Washington Post that the institution bred a “culture of hypocrisy” in its students by tolerating sexual harassment and favoritism. Barry was removed from his position by the academy but was later reinstated.
In Thursday’s incident the FBI arrested Arthur Sherrod, 23, of Palestine, Texas, at the academy. Joe Smith, a midshipman this year who was already awaiting discharge, remained at large, law enforcement officials said.
Also charged were Ensign Arthur Brown, a 1995 academy graduate who is currently stationed in Pensacola, Fla.; Kenneth Leak of Westbury, N.Y., who left the academy for unspecified reasons last year, and Christopher Rounds of Baltimore, who was dismissed from the academy in May 1994.
If convicted of the conspiracy charge, each of the five men faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. All but Smith face an additional count of receiving a stolen motor vehicle that has traveled in interstate commerce, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
“No one expects midshipmen to be involved in any of this,” said Lynne Battaglia, the U.S. attorney for Maryland.
“I’ve lived in Maryland for 30 years of my life, and every experience I’ve had with the Navy academy was one where the midshipmen were the best and the brightest and had a lot of character and integrity. That’s not to say that they don’t. This is just startling.”