New York, NY
By: MLAA
November 3, 2022
1) What is really going on with the federal criminal case surrounding accused serial rapist Captain John Merrone?
2) Why hasn’t Breon Peace, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, arrested and prosecuted Captain Merrone, and why has Peace now changed his story about the timeline of the case?
Here’s what we know:
On October 7, 2022 CNN ran a story titled “Ship captain allegedly drugged two students at sea, raped one of them,” which reported that civil prosecutors in the U.S. Coast Guard Office of Investigations & Casualty Analysis (CG-INV), led by Captain Jason Neubauer, were seeking to revoke Captain Merrone’s Merchant Mariner’s Credential (MMC) through the Coast Guard’s Suspension & Revocation (S&R) process over allegations that Merrone had drugged two cadets from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA) while at sea, raped one of the female cadets, and attempted to sexually assault the other.
The Coast Guard S&R process is an administrative law process ultimately adjudicated by a USCG Administrative Law Judge. The S&R process only concerns the right of a Merchant Mariner to hold and serve under a Coast Guard issued License or Credential. There is absolutely no criminal aspect to S&R proceedings, nor are jail sentences or criminal fines imposed. The most extreme punishment available for a mariner is the REVOCATION of Coast Guard issued credentials, which prevents the mariner from being able to work at sea.
In its October 7 story, CNN reported that the U.S. Coast Guard sent CNN a statement that said the Coast Guard Investigative Service (CGIS), which is the criminal investigations arm of the Coast Guard, had “conducted two separate probes” into Captain John Merrone. The Coast Guard told CNN the 2nd probe had begun in 2021, “as soon as it learned of the cadets’ allegations in 2021.”
MLAA has spoken to sources with direct knowledge of the first CGIS criminal investigation into Captain John Merrone, and those sources have confirmed that the first CGIS investigation into Merrone began in August or September of 2020–potentially more than one year before the 2nd CGIS investigation into Merrone began.
On October 7, 2022 CNN also reported that the U.S. Coast Guard, in a statement, told CNN that “they [the two separate criminal investigations into Merrone conducted by CGIS] are not being pursued for prosecution by the Department of Justice and are closed.”
CNN also reported that “the DOJ did not comment” on CNN’s request for a comment on the Merrone case or why the DOJ declined to criminally prosecute the mariner.
Because the 2nd criminal investigation into Captain Merrone involved students from the USMMA, and because the USMMA is located in Kings Point, New York and within the jurisdiction of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, Breon Peace, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, was responsible for making the prosecutorial decision of whether or not to prosecute Merrone based on the criminal investigation conducted by CGIS and referred to Breon Peace by CGIS.
On November 1, 2022 Long Island newspaper Newsday published an exclusive piece titled “Coast Guard: Cargo ship captain accused of rape surrenders license,” which reported that Captain Merrone had voluntarily surrendered his MMC and Captain’s license to the Coast Guard in order to avoid a Suspension & Revocation hearing before a USCG Administrative Law Judge over the rape and drugging allegations first reported by CNN three weeks earlier.
The subheading of Brodsky’s story in the paper edition of Newsday was “ALLEGED RAPE WILL NOT BE PROSECUTED BY FEDERAL OFFICIALS.” This statement aligned with the statements the Coast Guard earlier made to CNN.
Relying on statements from the U.S. Coast Guard, on November 1, 2022 Newsday originally reported that the Coast Guard Investigative Service “referred the case to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, which declined to prosecute.”
This confirmed that it was U.S. Attorney Breon Peace of the EDNY who ultimately made the decision not to prosecute Merrone and then closed the criminal case[s?] against Merrone.
However, only hours after the November 1, 2022 Newsday story was published, the story was updated online to reflect a “correction” by the Coast Guard. The updated story then read:
“The Coast Guard Investigative Service, which investigated the allegations, initially said that it referred the case to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District, which declined to prosecute. But shortly after Newsday published a story on the case, the Coast Guard said it learned that the criminal case against Merrone remains open.”
What?
Later in the day on November 1, 2022 Casey Conley of Professional Mariner magazine also published a piece on the Merrone saga, including Merrone’s decision to voluntarily surrender his MMC and license to the Coast Guard. Conley was also in communication with the Coast Guard for reporting on his story. In his story on Merrone surrendering his license, Conley reported:
The Coast Guard did not say when it first learned of the accusations against Merrone. Its investigators found the allegations credible. In April 2022, the service referred the matter to the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York for possible criminal investigation. The federal case remains open, authorities said.
This last sentence was apparently based on the same “correction” U.S. Coast Guard public affairs sent to multiple news outlets following the publication of the Newsday story.
From the statements made to CNN, Brodsky, and Conley by the Coast Guard, the public learned that 2 USMMA cadets reported shipboard drugging and sexual assault allegations to the Coast Guard some time in 2021, that a 2nd CGIS criminal investigation into Merrone subsequently ensued, and that the 2nd CGIS criminal investigation into Merrone lasted until April of 2022 when it was referred to U.S. Attorney Breon Peace’s office in the EDNY.
According to statements the U.S. Coast Guard has repeatedly made to sources close to MLAA, S&R charges against Coast Guard-credentialed mariners under criminal investigation by the CGIS cannot be brought against a mariner until CGIS has completed its criminal investigation, referred the investigation file to the appropriate U.S. Attorney’s Office, and until the U.S. Attorney–in this case Breon Peace–notifies the CGIS that it has made a final “prosecutorial decision” on whether or not the DOJ will be criminally prosecuting the mariner.
This policy is also logical, because any USCG S&R prosecution of a mariner’s license or MMC would necessarily interfere with, and potentially compromise, any later criminal prosecution of the mariner by the DOJ.
The U.S. Coast Guard’s S&R complaint against Captain Merrone was filed on August 3, 2022, which means that between approximately April 2022 and July 2022, U.S. Attorney Breon Peace was evaluating the CGIS criminal investigation[s?] into Captain Merrone, and deciding whether or not he would prosecute the accused serial rapist.
What is clear is that in approximately July of 2022, Breon Peace made the decision not to prosecute Captain Merrone for drugging and raping a USMMA cadet onboard his vessel upon the high seas—allowing Merrone go free. Why? We don’t know.
Subsequent to making the internal decision not to prosecute Merrone, Peace notified the CGIS of his office’s decision not to prosecute, and the CGIS then transferred its criminal investigation files to the Coast Guard’s S&R prosecutors who used the CGIS investigation to bring S&R charges against Merrone, which were filed on August 3, 2022.
The existence of the allegations and the S&R complaint against Merrone then became public when, on October 7, 2022, CNN published “Ship captain allegedly drugged two students at sea, raped one of them.”
When the CNN story was published, the DOJ’s criminal case against Merrone had already been closed for several months.
Why the Reversal & Changing Story from Breon Peace?
In his November 1, 2022 Professional Mariner piece, Casey Conley wrote:
“Other victims came forward after the original complaint was filed,” Coast Guard spokesman Kurt Fredrickson said via email.
Victims…
What appears to have happened is that after CNN published its story on October 7, 2022, multiple additional victims of accused serial rapist Captain John Merrone contacted the U.S. Coast Guard, and then after Robert Brodsky published his follow up bombshell in Newsday on November 1, 2022–in U.S. Attorney Breon Peace’s backyard–Peace realized that the public had had learned of his intentional failure to prosecute a serial rapist, that his hometown paper was reporting on his failure to prosecute, and he then subsequently sought to claim that he had never closed the case and had never declined to prosecute Merrone for drugging two USMMA cadets, raping one of them, and doing whatever he did to the other victims.
Lingering Questions:
-But what about that 1st CGIS criminal investigation into Captain John Merrone?
-Will Peace ever take any action against Merrone, and how many victims are required for Breon Peace to care about a case?
More to come…
If you have information regarding Captain John Merrone relevant to ongoing law enforcement investigations into alleged druggings and sexual assaults committed by Merrone, please contact MLAA by emailing help@maritimelegalaid.com or calling/texting 302-827-3890.
Related Stories: