MLAA Has Filed a Federal Lawsuit Against New Maritime Administrator Ann Phillips Over Phillips’ Efforts to Hide USMMA Sea Year Sexual Assault Incidents & Policies
Ann Phillips, MARAD Lawsuit
New York, NY
By: MLAA
On Monday May 23, 2022 MLAA wrote to U.S. Maritime Administrator Ann Phillips respectfully requesting that Phillips finally release important records relating to the USMMA Sea Year program that MARAD has been illegally withholding from MLAA since February 3, 2022–nearly 3 months.
After not receiving a response from Phillips, on Wednesday May 25, 2022 MLAA filed a federal lawsuit against Phillips and her agency in the Manhattan branch U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (S.D.N.Y.). MLAA’s office and principal place of business are located in Manhattan.
The lawsuit is a civil action under the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) (5 U.S.C. § 552) seeking the release of MARAD records requested by MLAA on December 30, 2021. The records sought by MLAA in its lawsuit against MARAD relate to the October 2021 “Pause/Shutdown” of the USMMA Sea Year program following MLAA’s publication of Midshipman-X’s bombshell account of her 2019 Sea Year horror story, an incredibly brave act of whistle-blowing that rocked the U.S. maritime industry to its foundations.
On October 12, 2021–two weeks after Midshipman-X published her sickening account–Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), in her capacity as Chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, sent a blistering letter to acting Maritime Administrator Lucinda Lessley requesting a response to dozens of first-person maritime horror stories that brave survivors had published on the MLAA website over the previous 16 months, as well as Lessley’s response to MLAA investigative reports of policy failures by MARAD and the U.S. Coast Guard.
In her letter to MARAD Acting Administrator Lessley, Cantwell wrote:
I write to express my grave concern over the allegations of rape, sexual assault, and sexual harassment made by midshipmen at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (“USMMA”) and the response by you and others at the Department of Transportation (“DOT”). Through the Maritime Legal Aid & Advocacy (“MLAA”), a legal advocacy group formed on behalf of mariners, victims’ stories of shipboard sexual harassment, sexual assault, and rape have bravely shared their personal stories in blog posts on the group’s website. You and Deputy Secretary Trottenberg sent an open letter to the King’s Point community and posted it on the USMMA website on Saturday, October 2, 2021 acknowledging these allegations and expressing your unwavering support for the individual who shared her story on September 27. The despicable accounts put forth by brave young women and men just starting promising careers in the maritime industry are frightening and unacceptable. Many of these allegations involve a repeated pattern of crimes and intimidations committed by people in positions of power and responsibility on merchant ships, and include alleged poor oversight or policy failures of USMMA officials and Coast Guard investigators. In light of the seriousness of these allegations, I ask that you provide the committee with a description of the steps that have been taken by Maritime Administration (“MARAD”), the DOT, and the USMMA to investigate the allegations made on the MLAA’s website, and actions taken in response to findings in those investigations.
In addition to demanding “a description of the steps that have been taken by MARAD, the DOT, and the USMMA to investigate the allegations made on the MLAA’s website, and actions taken in response to findings in those investigations,” Cantwell demanded answers to other explosive questions regarding MARAD’s negligent and dangerous operation of the Sea Year program, including:
How many reports of rape, sexual assault, sexual harassment or related offenses have been reported by or concerning midshipmen of the USMMA in the last 10 years? Please provide a breakdown of these reports that includes whether the incidents occurred on campus, off campus, or at sea during Sea Year, the party that conducted the investigation(s), and the outcome of that investigation.
In the event that a midshipman is removed from a vessel following a sexual assault or harassment report(s), does USMMA remove all midshipmen onboard the vessel for their Sea Year? Please include copies of the USMMA policy, regulation or other guidance on this matter.
If a vessel or its parent company is the subject of a sexual assault or sexual harassment complaint, does the USMMA assign midshipmen to those vessels in the future? Please include copies of the USMMA policy, regulation or other guidance on this matter.
In the event that a midshipman makes an informal or formal complaint of sexual assault, harassment, or discrimination, may they request to be assigned to a different vessel for the duration of their Sea Year? Please include copies of the USMMA policy, regulation or other guidance on this matter.
What actions can be and have been taken by the Coast Guard to withdraw or suspend credentials of mariners with a history of allegations of sexual assault and harassment against Sea Year midshipmen?
Maritime Safety Crusader Maria Cantwell demanded that MARAD deliver a response to her questions by October 26, 2021–two weeks later.
MARAD’s response to Cantwell must have horrified the Senator, and on October 29, 2021–only 3 days after receiving MARAD’s response–Cantwell fired back with a booming 2nd letter, this time addressed to U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttegieg.
Senator Cantwell’s letter of October 29, 2021 described the broader maritime industry as a toxic work environment, demanded that Buttegieg fire USMMA Superintendent Joachim Buono, and demanded that Buttegieg shut down the Sea Year program. Cantwell’s letter was signed by the chairpersons six powerful congressional committees.
Of USMMA Superintendent Buono, Cantwell wrote that Buono “has failed to take seriously the safety of his students and has not demonstrated a commitment to change the toxic culture at the Academy and during Sea Year. Superintendent Buono must be removed from his position.”
Senator Cantwell also wrote that she and the other 5 congressional chairpersons with oversight over the USMMA and MARAD who signed the letter “expect the department to adopt robust policy changes before the Sea Year program can resume. The maritime industry and United States Merchant Marine are a vital part of our national security and our nation’s economy. Sexual harassment, sexual assault, and other offenses are intolerable, and the department must take immediate and long-term action to stop these offenses to protect the cadets of the USMMA, both at the Academy and at sea.”
Following Cantwell’s 2nd letter, Secretary Buttegieg was forced to “pause” MARAD’s Sea Year program. More than 6 months later–the program has not been fully restored.
Because of the critical importance to the safety of all cadets working aboard U.S.-flag merchant ships, MLAA later sought to use the Freedom of Information Act to obtain MARAD’s response to Cantwell. However, MARAD and Administrator Ann Phillips did not comply with the FOIA, sought to hide the damning information regarding their negligent and dangerous operation of the Sea Year program, and MLAA was subsequently forced to file its lawsuit on May 25, 2022.
Federal judge Hon. John G. Koeltl has been assigned to hear the case. Koeltl received his law degree from Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. He then served as an Assistant Special Prosecutor for the Watergate Special Prosecution Force and later made partner at the elite New York law firm of Debevoise & Plimpton. Koeltl was nominated to his seat on the S.D.N.Y. by President Bill Clinton in 1994.
MLAA is represented in the lawsuit by Attorney J. Ryan Melogy of New York firm Maritime Legal Solutions, PLLC. In addition to representing MLAA in its lawsuit against MARAD, Melogy also currently represents four victims of maritime industry sexual harassment and sexual assault in civil actions against shipping companies and in the victims’ related criminal and administrative proceedings against the perpetrators of the crimes and sexual misconduct.
MARAD will be represented in the lawsuit by attorneys from the U.S. Department of Justice.