{"id":7334,"date":"2026-07-16T05:36:39","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T00:36:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=7334"},"modified":"2026-07-16T05:36:39","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T00:36:39","slug":"ex-captain-pleads-guilty-to-drugging-and-raping-a-us-merchant-marine-academy-cadet-on-a-cargo-ship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=7334","title":{"rendered":"Ex-captain pleads guilty to drugging and raping a US Merchant Marine Academy cadet on a cargo ship"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"prism-article-body\">\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \"><span class=\"oyrPY qlwaB AGxeB  \">NEW YORK &#8212; <\/span>A former cargo ship captain pleaded guilty on Wednesday to drugging and raping a 21-year-old U.S. Merchant Marine Academy cadet who was working on the vessel as part of the academy\u2019s Sea Year training program.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">John Merrone, 53, pleaded guilty just as his trial was about to start in Brooklyn federal court. He admitted that he had sexual intercourse with the cadet without her consent \u201con the ship, in the middle of the ocean\u201d after knocking her out with an intoxicant in 2019.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">A jury had been picked and the woman, identified only as Jane Doe, was in the courthouse waiting to testify. Prosecutors were also planning to call as witnesses several other women who have accused Merrone of sexual assaults over the last three decades.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The Associated Press generally does not name people who say they have been sexually assaulted, unless they agree to be identified.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Merrone was previously convicted of false imprisonment and battery after a Florida Keys waitress accused him of having sex with her against her will, but an appeals court overturned the verdict and prosecutors didn&#8217;t retry the case.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The former cadet, who still works in the maritime industry, watched through tears from the courtroom gallery as Merrone impassively said \u201cguilty\u201d to each of five charges, including aggravated sexual abuse and abusive sexual contact.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Her lawyer, Ryan Melogy, said she turned to him afterward and said, \u201cIt&#8217;s over.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cSex crimes are notoriously difficult to prosecute in general,\u201d Melogy said. \u201cWhen they occur in the middle of the ocean aboard a ship, the level of difficultly involved in prosecuting them probably increases exponentially.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Merrone faces up to life in prison, but Assistant U.S. Attorney Kayla Bensing said federal sentencing guidelines call for about 15 to 19 years behind bars. Merrone&#8217;s lawyers said they think that estimate is too high. The guidelines are advisory and the judge, Ramon E. Reyes Jr., could sentence him to more or less time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Merrone will remain free on bail until sentencing, which is scheduled for Dec. 22. He and his lawyers, Bruce Barket and Nicole Aloise, declined to comment as they left court.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">A message seeking comment was left for the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cIt is my hope that today\u2019s guilty plea will give the survivor of this attack some measure of closure knowing that the defendant has been held accountable for his despicable conduct,\u201d U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">According to prosecutors, Merrone began sending the cadet and another student Facebook messages a few weeks before they boarded his ship, the 623-foot-long (190-meter-long) Liberty Glory, for a voyage from Bahrain to Corpus Christi, Texas.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">On Sept. 9, 2019, after more than a month onboard and with a little more than a week left in the journey, prosecutors said Merrone messaged the cadet and her friend asking that they come to his room for a \u201csoda.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cCaptain you know I stay away from soda !\u201d the cadet wrote.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cU may like my soda!?!?\u201d Merrone replied.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The women acquiesced, prosecutors said, and the captain poured them each a drink from an already open bottle of alcohol, then opened a new bottle and poured a drink for himself. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Soon after having some of the drinks, the women \u201clost recollection of the remainder of the evening,\u201d prosecutors said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The cadet awoke the next morning in her bed wearing only a shirt and bra but not pants or underwear, feeling nauseous; she had a headache and felt vaginal discomfort, prosecutors said. Her friend awoke with stomach cramping and a debilitating headache, prosecutors said. She did not accuse Merrone of sexual assault.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Merrone called the cadet to his room and told her he had \u201cfun last night,\u201d that \u201cone thing led to another\u201d and asked her to do it again, prosecutors said. After the cadet told him she didn&#8217;t remember what happened and that the encounter was not consensual, Merrone offered her money, which she declined, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Merrone later sent the cadet a photograph of herself holding money on what she believed to be from the night of the assault, along with a message: \u201clol. That how u make a woman happy!!!!\u201d She didn&#8217;t recall the photo being taken, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">After that, prosecutors said, the captain went to the cadet&#8217;s room and pulled from his pocket the underwear she had been wearing the night of the assault.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, in Kings Point, New York, trains students to work in the commercial shipping industry. It has an enrollment of about 1,000 students. It is one of five military service academies, and the only one under the U.S. Department of Transportation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">In 2016, the academy <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/general-news-047f08e5bef3444eb9f42af8fa43aa65\">temporarily shut down the Sea Year program<\/a>, which sends cadets to work on container ships, oil tankers, passenger liners and other vessels, amid sexual abuse and bullying concerns. <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/national-general-news-f05e3399b3aa4e3f81597d115594d47c\">The program resumed in 2017<\/a> on vessels operated by three companies that the academy said had implemented new preventive policies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC eTIW sUzSN \">The academy suspended the Sea Year program again in 2021 after another cadet said a cargo ship supervisor got her drunk and raped her. It resumed after more safety protocols were put in place.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NEW YORK &#8212; A former cargo ship captain pleaded guilty on Wednesday to drugging and raping a 21-year-old U.S. Merchant Marine Academy cadet who was working on the vessel as part of the academy\u2019s Sea Year training program. John Merrone, 53, pleaded guilty just as his trial was about to start in Brooklyn federal court&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7335,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.abcnewsfe.com\/a\/386b0982-b73d-4183-a00c-691c5f1e66bf\/wirestory_e27ab04f201ed792c0663392c159b492_16x9.jpg?w=1600","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7334\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}