Senior charged with assaulting six cadets

By Stephanie Reitz - 02/16/2006

NEW LONDON, Conn. — A senior at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy has been charged with sexually assaulting six female cadets in the campus barracks.

Webster M. Smith, 22, of Houston was separated from the rest of the student population after the first complaint was filed with administrators Dec. 4, the academy said.

Smith, a linebacker on the academy’s football team, was charged Feb. 9 under military law with rape, assault, indecent assault and sodomy against female cadets, said Chief Warrant Officer David French, an academy spokesman.

Some of the attacks allegedly happened on academy grounds when Smith entered female cadets’ rooms without permission. Others were reported off campus. The rape allegedly occurred in June 2005 during a trip to Annapolis, French said.

The military equivalent of a civilian grand jury hearing was tentatively scheduled for March 15 to decide whether to court-martial Smith, French said. Such a military hearing is typically open to the public, but the presiding military official could close it.

While separated from other cadets, Smith was not jailed and was allowed to return home for holiday leave. He returned to campus Tuesday and was assigned a work area on academy grounds along the waterfront, an area other cadets are prohibited from entering, the academy said.

‘‘He’s no longer in the barracks, and he does not actually stay at the campus at night,’’ French said.

Smith could not be reached for comment Thursday. The academy does not publish a student directory. The cadet watch desk said only that he could not be reached. A message seeking comment from his attorney was left at the Naval Legal Service Office in Groton.

It was unclear whether the alleged victims were under Smith’s military command, although seniors have supervisory power over lower-level cadets. French would not release the women’s class ranks.

Smith cannot be prosecuted in civilian courts because the alleged incidents occurred on military property. Rape and assault carry the same definitions under military law as they do in civilian courts, according to the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

French said there is no record of any previous court-martials at the academy, the smallest federal service academy, with about 850 cadets. About 30 percent are women, according to its Web site. Male and female cadets share dormitories but have separate rooms.

In 2004, nearly 150 women at the Air Force Academy in Colorado came forward with accusations that they had been sexually assaulted by fellow cadets between 1993 and 2003. Many alleged they were ignored or ostracized by commanders for speaking out. A Pentagon task force found that hostile attitudes and inappropriate treatment of women also persisted at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and at the Naval Academy.