In 2018 a Texas A&M Maritime Academy Cadet and Registered Sex Offender was Given a Settlement Agreement by the U.S. Coast Guard Allowing Him to Obtain his Merchant Mariner’s License
By: MLAA
According to documents obtained by Maritime Legal Aid & Advocacy (MLAA) from the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) via the Freedom of Information Act, in 2018 a Cadet at the Texas A&M Maritime Academy at Galveston was convicted of sex crimes by the 184th District Court of Harris County, Texas. This conviction required the Texas A&M Maritime Academy Cadet to register as a Sex Offender in the Texas “Sex Offender Registry” (USCG Enforcement Activity # 5752319).
Later in 2018, the Texas A&M Cadet signed a Secret Settlement Agreement with the U.S. Coast Guard that allowed him to complete his course of study at Texas A&M Maritime Academy and eventually obtain his Merchant Mariner’s license.
On August 9, 2018 a United States Coast Guard Administrative Law Judge signed the Consent Order approving the Settlement Agreement.
Although MLAA has not yet obtained a copy of the Settlement Agreement, the Enforcement Report obtained by MLAA indicates that the Settlement Agreement provided a 6 to 12 month outright suspension of the Cadet’s Merchant Mariner Credential, and required the Cadet to attend therapy in order to be “rehabilitated” from his sexually deviant ways.
According to the Enforcement Report, one year after the date of the Settlement Agreement, the Cadet had not provided the USCG with proof of his “rehabilitation,” had not complied with the terms of the Settlement Agreement, and had stopped communicating with the USCG. At that point the USCG destroyed the Cadet’s Merchant Mariner Credential.
Fortunately, it appears that this Registered Sex Offender is not working as a licensed officer in the U.S. Maritime industry. But the shocking revelation from this case is that if the Cadet had complied with the terms of his USCG Settlement Agreement, he would be working in this industry as a licensed Merchant Marine Officer, and no one on his ship would have been told anything about his history—by anyone.
Cadets could have been sent to his ship, and never told anything about his conviction for sex crimes, the fact that he was a registered sex offender in Texas, or that the fact that he he signed a Secret Settlement Agreement with the USCG.
The End.