<p>
[quote]
For decades, midshipmen have found comfort and refuge from the rigors of Naval Academy life in the homes of Annapolis "sponsor" families, who welcome them on weekends and holidays to the dinner table and spare rooms or basements.</p>
<p>But a court-martial scheduled for Monday - and a civil trial likely to follow - could taint the academy-run program's spit-polished reputation as jurors weigh allegations that a Navy doctor and sponsor lured midshipmen into his home with a stocked fridge, plasma TVs and popular video games in order to secretly record them having sex....
<p>Olsen makes it seem that there are problems generated by the program not individuals. It is like saying that because there are a few Employees of McDonalds doing bad things to the customers food that the McDonalds Corp. is full of Food related problems. (I use McD's because of the various news reports of the above allegations happening over the last 40+ years of the organizations existence,, no slight on McD's). Shame on Olsen for this trash reporting.</p>
<p>I may be giving the general population too much credit, but I honestly believe when most people read something like this, or any other "newsworthy" event, teachers having sex with 8th graders etc. they have enough common sense to know that in any institution with a large population coming from many different walks of life, there will always be bad apples. Those people do not represent the actual character or integrity of the institution itself. Stuff like this resonates with those that already have an opinion and they are just looking for specific events to validate that opinion. People like that also have an amazing capacity to ignore the positive when it comes to how they feel things should be or really are.</p>
<p>
[quote]
A jury of five men and one women -- all Navy captains -- was selected this morning for the trial of a Navy doctor accused of secretly videotaping midshipmen having sex in his Annapolis-area home.</p>
<p>The prosecuting attorney, Lt. Cmdr. Peter Clemow, asked the pool of 10 Navy officers whether they had strong feelings about homosexuality, and all shook their heads or sat in their seats, expressionless.</p>
<p>That was the only time today that gay conduct was raised regarding Ronan, whose computer had more than 2,000 homoerotic images saved on it, according to investigators....
<p>
[quote]
For decades, midshipmen have found comfort and refuge from the rigors of Naval Academy life in the homes of Annapolis "sponsor" families, who welcome them on weekends and holidays to the dinner table and spare rooms or basements.</p>
<p>But a court-martial scheduled for Monday - and a civil trial likely to follow - could taint the academy-run program's spit-polished reputation as jurors weigh allegations that a Navy doctor and sponsor lured midshipmen into his home with a stocked fridge, plasma TVs and popular video games in order to secretly record them having sex.
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</p>
<p>Another hit piece by Bradley Olsen. :mad:</p>
<p>So he writes an article about how "some critics think", and then spends the rest of the article describing how appreciative the Midshipmen are.</p>
<p>Painting with a broad brush in the headline and opening paragraphs, though, eh?</p>
<p>MORE bad news about USNA from the same clown, based mostly on hearsay and some isolated incidents blown out of proportion, eh?</p>
<p>And you wonder why most of us take absolutely nothing this idiot says seriously? :mad:</p>
<p>Am I shooting the messenger again? :rolleyes:</p>
<p>It's easy to become jaded, the first time I was exposed to news coverage that I knew something about was in the early 80's, I was at Hanscom AFB then home to ESD/Electronics System Division. I was at a Lab where a civilian employee was caught stealing supplies and materials, stupid stuff, plywood etc. To make matters worse he used a few of the guys under him to help him build a garage at home...on the governments time. </p>
<p>The news broke and the then ESD chief decides he should respond to the coverage from our military friendly Boston press over the pleas of his staff and my CO. He's end up on the evening news. Do they let the general speak? Ask him any questions on camera that we can hear? No, as soon as the introductions are made and the "thank you for agreeing to speak to us general" comments are over they cut to a voice over about the billions of dollars under the control of ESD, as if linking the theft of plywood to appropriations for AWACS R&D makes any sense. You can see his lips moving in the background but the only words you are hearing are coming from the reporter doing the voice over. Gepeto couldn't have done a better job... </p>
<p>Perhaps if I didn't have first hand knowledge I would not have been very concerned about the piece or the level of manipulation that was going on. Technically they didn't say anything inaccurate or incorrect, but through their approach to the subject they certainly made the listener think that the larceny involved much more than a few sheets of plywood. </p>
<p>At the same time we see "investigative reporting" can expose things that should not be happening. Walter Reed comes to mind as a recent example. So I think it would fair to say we shouldn't go down the same path and paint the press with the same broad brush of generalities that some members of the press are so adept as using on subjects that we care about.</p>
<p>
[quote]
The prosecution’s chief witness in a case against a Navy doctor accused of secretly videotaping Naval Academy midshipmen having sex at his home lied under oath at a preliminary hearing earlier this year, a defense lawyer said Monday.</p>
<p>William Ferris, lead defense attorney for Cmdr. Kevin Ronan, told a jury of five captains and one commander that former midshipman Abby Strasdas lied during a June Article 32 hearing when he testified that, after discovering tapes of midshipmen having sex in Ronan’s home, took only two of the tapes from the house.</p>
<p>Both tapes were later turned over to police, Ferris said, but Strasdas later admitted that he took two other sex tapes from Ronan’s house, leaving one with a family member and another with a lawyer for safekeeping. Ferris used this to call Strasdas’ credibility into question....
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</p>
<p>Note that CDR Ronan was an "unofficial" sponsor of midshipmen NOT a sanctioned sponsor as alleged by Brad Olsen, Baltimore Sun, in his recent article.</p>
<p>
[quote]
An attorney for a Navy doctor accused of secretly videotaping Naval Academy midshipmen having sex said in court yesterday that the doctor purchased surveillance equipment after becoming concerned that midshipmen were holding parties at his Annapolis home while he was away.</p>
<p>Cmdr. Kevin Ronan, who hosted midshipmen as part of the academy's sponsor program, intended to videotape "public areas" of his house, his lawyer, William Ferris, said during opening statements of the doctor's general court-martial at the Navy Yard. He depicted Ronan as the victim of an extortion plot....
<p>
[quote]
A former Naval Academy midshipman told a military jury today that he was stunned to discover DVDs and videotapes stacked in a Navy doctor's Annapolis home showing him and other Mids engaged in sex acts.</p>
<p>The former midshipman testified in a Washington Navy Yard courtroom that he was living with Cmdr. Kevin Ronan after the midshipman's expulsion in January and went into the doctor's bedroom late one Saturday night while Ronan was out of town to find some toothpaste. As he brushed, he said, he noticed a stack of DVDs with titles he'd never heard of.</p>
<p>He described sorting through them, picking up one labeled "Lectures," and popping it into the DVD player. On it, he said, he saw a fellow athlete having sex with his girlfriend....
<p>
[quote]
The prosecutions chief witness in a case against a Navy doctor accused of secretly videotaping Naval Academy midshipmen having sex at his home lied under oath at a preliminary hearing earlier this year, a defense lawyer said Monday.</p>
<p>William Ferris, lead defense attorney for Cmdr. Kevin Ronan, told a jury of five captains and one commander that former midshipman Abby Strasdas lied during a June Article 32 hearing when he testified that, after discovering tapes of midshipmen having sex in Ronans home, took only two of the tapes from the house....
<p>
[quote]
Two former Naval Academy midshipmen testified yesterday they had no idea they were being taped as they had sex with their girlfriends in a Navy doctor's home. But attorneys for the physician noted that one clip shows one of the men apparently looking repeatedly at the camera, raising the possibility that he knew he was being filmed.</p>
<p>Prosecutors played the clip, along with two other sexually explicit encounters from a homemade digital video disc, on the second day of Cmdr. Kevin Ronan's court-martial at the Washington Navy Yard....
<p>
[quote]
The girlfriend of a former Naval Academy midshipman tearfully described in a military court this morning learning that she appeared in sex tapes allegedly found in a Navy doctor's Annapolis home.</p>
<p>The woman said she cried in her former Arnold apartment after her boyfriend informed her in January of the tapes. The boyfriend told her that Cmdr. Kevin Ronan, who hosted the couple and other midshipmen at his Annapolis-area house on weekends as part of the Naval Academy sponsor program, had secretly made the tapes....
<p>
[quote]
A former Naval Academy midshipman testified Tuesday that he withheld sex tapes from investigators because he feared high-ranking academy officials would sabotage the investigation of a Navy doctor accused of secretly taping midshipmen at his Annapolis, Md., home.</p>
<p>During the second day of the court-martial involving former academy doctor Cmdr. Kevin Ronan, the former midshipman, Addy Strasdas, was asked whether he mistrusted Navy officials.</p>
<p>No, not wholly, he responded. But this was such a high-profile case. We thought it was best to keep copies ourselves....
<p>From reading various articles(I know I am stepping in it here) It appears the prosecution has some credibility issues here. I am not saying Cdr Ronan is innocent but "reasonable doubt" sure does enter in pretty heavily.
All I know about this stuff I saw on "JAG" :)
Sea Lawyer Questions:::
Does a Courts Martial follow the same parameters of reasonable doubt as a civilian trial?
How do the members convict, or acquit? a majority or a Unanimous vote?</p>
<p>Even if he isn't sent to prison, he's going to be penniless after the families of those videotaped get done with him, and without a medical license. What a pervert! I'm upset that he was even part of the brigade medical team!</p>
<p>
[quote]
For almost a year, she and her boyfriend, a former Naval Academy midshipman, spent many weekends at the Annapolis home of Navy Cmdr. Kevin Ronan. The young woman said they would share a "family meal" every Sunday during which everyone - including other Mids - swapped stories about school and what they had done over the weekend.</p>
<p>When her boyfriend told her that Ronan had secretly taped them having sex, she isolated herself in a room and cried, the woman testified yesterday in Ronan's court-martial....
<p>
[quote]
A military jury this morning watched two more DVDs showing Naval Academy midshipmen engaged in sex acts as the prosecution of the Navy doctor accused of secretly making those recordings began to wind down.</p>
<p>The DVD clips shown in the Washington Navy Yard courtroom included one of Cmdr. Kevin Ronan's accusers, a former midshipman, having sex with his girlfriend in Ronan's Annapolis-area home, and another of a male midshipman masturbating....