In New FOIA Ruling, U.S. Coast Guard Doubles Down on Protecting the Names of USCG-Approved Sexual Predators from Public Release, Citing the Predators’ “Privacy Interests”

New York, NY

As Maritime Legal Aid & Advocacy (MLAA) continues the lonely fight to bring transparency to the U.S. Coast Guard’s shameful record of (not) enforcing laws and regulations against sexual misconduct committed by USCG-credentialed mariners, the U.S. Coast Guard continues its >1 year-long pattern of obstruction, delay, deception, and predator-protecting.

In a letter to MLAA dated August 27, 2021 from Kathleen Claffie, Chief of the U.S. Coast Guard’s Office of Privacy Management, the U.S. Coast Guard again denied MLAA’s lawful requests for the Coast Guard to release the names of convicted child molesters, rapists, registered sex offenders, and other sexual predators who have signed “Settlement Agreements” with the U.S. Coast Guard. In reaching her decision to deny MLAA’s request for the predators’ names, Chaffie cited the “privacy interests” of the USCG-approved sexual predators.

Incredibly, the names of dozens of mariners charged with official misconduct by the Coast Guard can be found on the USCG’s website via publicly available ALJ court documents. The U.S. Coast Guard believes that mariners who are alleged to have trace amounts of marijuana metabolites supposedly discovered in their urine have no right to privacy. The names of these mariners who failed drug tests and challenged the results are freely available to the public.

But rapists, child molesters, shipboard monsters and other USCG-approved scum are afforded a special kind of privacy rights by the USCG. The USCG leadership seem to deeply sympathize with rapists, while demonizing people who are accused of smoking a plant that is now completely legal in much of the United States.

In clear violation of federal law and the U.S. Coast Guard’s own regulations, the USCG also continues to refuse to release any of the secret Sexual Predator Settlement Agreements, a decision which was reaffirmed in Kathleen Claffie’s most recent letter to MLAA. The Settlement Agreements have enabled known, admitted, and convicted sexual predators to continue working as USCG-credentialed mariners in the U.S. maritime industry with the Coast Guard’s knowledge and approval.

The practice of the U.S. Coast Guard offering Settlement Agreements to known sex predators been an ongoing legal tactic used by the USCG for decades, and the until-recently-secret practice, which was first uncovered and reported by MLAA, has allowed the USCG to avoid taking action on the issue of sexual misconduct in the U.S. maritime industry and allowed the USCG to avoid raising public awareness around the Coast Guard’s actual enforcement polices.

The Settlement Agreements are a cornerstone of the USCG’s “let’s just keep it all quiet” policies that are now under attack by MLAA and others.