Maritime Insanity: Nine Months After Criminal Investigation Began, Midshipman-X’s Accused Rapist is Still Shipping From MEBA Union Halls & Working in the U.S. Merchant Marine
July 8, 2022
New York, NY
By: MLAA
More than nine months after the U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service (CGIS) launched a criminal investigation into sexual assault allegations made by Midshipman-X in her now-famous blog post, MLAA has learned the accused rapist is still actively shipping out aboard vessels in the U.S. Merchant Marine.
Multiple sources with first-hand knowledge of the accused-rapist’s activities since the criminal investigation began have confirmed to MLAA that the suspect is still actively shipping out of union halls of the Marine Engineers' Beneficial Association (MEBA).
The 6 U.S. state maritime academies as well as the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy all routinely send their students to work on the same vessels the accused rapist is continuing to serve aboard, and it is likely the accused rapist has continued to supervise cadets from these maritime academies while under criminal investigation and scrutiny from the U.S. Department of Justice.
The MEBA labor union is well aware of the accused rapist’s identity, because the mariner was one of five Maersk officers from the M/V Alliance Fairfax who were “suspended” by Maersk in an announcement made on October 12, 2021–about 2 weeks after Midshipman-X published her blog post.
Leaders of the MEBA and the Masters, Mates & Pilots (MMP) labor union, which represents the Captain of the M/V Alliance Fairfax, were heavily involved in negotiations over the “suspension” of their union members by Maersk.
The “suspension” of the accused rapist, the Captain of the M/V Alliance Fairfax, and the other 3 engineering officers involved ended around February 8, 2022 when Maersk told Danish newspaper Berlingske that all five officers had been fired from Maersk following an internal investigation. All four engineering officers who were fired by Maersk were members of the MEBA.
MLAA has learned from multiple sources with first-hand knowledge of the situation that during their approximately four month “suspension” by Maersk, all of the officers involved continued to receive their salaries from Maersk and that the “suspension” was actually a paid leave of absence.
The lack of action against any of the mariners involved by the U.S. Coast Guard or the U.S. Department of Justice is completely mystifying to MLAA, and the inaction is placing U.S. mariners in unnecessary danger.
As MLAA has previously reported, on October 25, 2021—approximately one month after she published her blog post–Midshipman-X, accompanied by her attorney, met with criminal investigators from the Coast Guard Investigative Service at Coast Guard offices in lower Manhattan for a recorded interview. At the time of her interview, the CGIS had already begun a criminal investigation into Midshipman-X’s allegations.
Then, in mid December of 2021 Midshipman-X, again accompanied by her attorney, was interviewed by two Special Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) at an FBI office in New York. The FBI subsequently offered assistance to the CGIS in their Midshipman-X investigation, but the CGIS declined that offer of assistance from the FBI.
From October 2021 through January 2021, the CGIS conducted a criminal investigation into the Midshipman-X case. MLAA has heard from multiple sources that the accused rapist retained a major criminal defense attorney and refused to cooperate with CGIS investigators. Maersk has made several public statements claiming that the accused rapist also refused to cooperate with Maersk’s own internal investigation into the crime.
On February 2, 2022, Midshipman-X and her attorney were notified by the CGIS that the CGIS had completed their criminal investigation, and that the case was referred to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida pursuant to 18 USC 3238. Because the crime was committed upon the high seas, MLAA believes the case was referred to the Middle District of Florida based on the last known place of residence of the accused rapist.
Roger D. Handberg is the Assistant United States Attorney for the Middle District of Florida, and the decision of whether or not to bring criminal charges against the accused rapist is Roger Handberg’s decision and Roger Handberg’s alone.
Today is July 8, 2022. Roger Handberg has now been in full control of the Midshipman-X case for more than 5 months, and yet he has taken no action. Clearly, Handberg has much higher priorities than combating the rape of teenagers at sea by licensed engineers aboard American-flag cargo vessels. But what those priorities are is not clear to anyone.
Meanwhile, during the more than 9 months since the U.S. Coast Guard began its investigation, the agency has taken no action against the accused rapist via its Suspension & Revocation (S&R) process, which allows the USCG to suspend and revoke USCG-issued merchant mariner credentials.
MLAA has filed multiple information requests with the USCG that have confirmed that no action has been taken against the accused rapists’ merchant mariner credential and that no S&R charges have been brought against him.
The U.S. Coast Guard Office of Investigations & Casualty Analysis (CG-INV), led by Captain Jason Neubauer, is responsible for investigating and prosecuting S&R cases within the USCG’s Administrative Law Judge (USCG-ALJ) court system.
MLAA recently filed a lawsuit against the USCG-ALJ in an effort to expose the court system’s decades-long pattern of protecting maritime sexual predators, and it is not clear to anyone that the USCG-ALJ would even revoke the license of a USCG-credentialed mariner who was found to have raped another cadet aboard a U.S.-flag vessel.
In a highly controversial decision, the USCG-ALJ recently issued only a four month license suspension to a Maersk Captain found guilty of at least 3 counts of “Assault and Battery” against a USMMA cadet.
Overall, the only thing that seems clear to MLAA is that the United States government does not care about the safety of mariners at sea, and does not believe that protecting American mariners from sexual violence is a high priority.