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Judge finds midshipman ‘not guilty’ in Naval Academy sexual assault case Judge finds midshipman not guilty in Naval Academy sexual assault case
(about 1 hour later)
A military judge has found an ex-Navy football player not guilty of sexually assaulting a female classmate at an April 2012 party. A military judge on Thursday found a former Navy football player not guilty of sexually assaulting a female classmate at an April 2012 party, in the latest high-profile case to focus on the military’s handling of sexual assault claims.
Marine Col. Daniel Daugherty, the judge presiding, issued his ruling Thursday afternoon to a packed courtroom at the Washington Navy Yard. Marine Corps Col. Daniel Daugherty issued his ruling to a packed courtroom at the Washington Navy Yard. Daugherty determined midshipman Joshua Tate’s fate after Tate waived his right to a jury trial last week.
The defendant, Joshua Tate, of Nashville, stood emotionless as the verdict was read, while a supporter cried behind him. Tate, of Nashville, stood emotionless as the verdict was read, while a supporter seated behind him cried. He later left the courtroom without saying anything.
Tate still faces conduct charges for lying to investigators that will be handled within the academy’s midshipman conduct system, the judge said. Tate still faces conduct charges for lying to investigators that will be handled within the U.S. Naval Academy’s midshipman conduct system, the judge said. Tate will likely be forced to leave, his lawyers said, even though he has no other prior conduct violations.
Tate was one of three former Navy football players charged with sexually assaulting a female classmate at an off-campus party in 2012. But he became the sole defendant to face trial after charges were dropped against the other two, Eric Graham, of Eight Mile, Ala., and Tra’ves Bush, of Johnston, S.C. Tate was one of three former Navy football players charged in the case. But charges were later dropped against the other two, Eric Graham of Eight Mile, Ala., and Tra’ves Bush of Johnston, S.C.
The case centers on what happened between Tate and the accuser in a car parked outside a crowded party at a house rented by Tate’s teammates, and whether the alleged victim was too drunk to consent to sex. (The Washington Post does not generally identify alleged victims of sexual assault.) The case centered on what happened between Tate and the accuser, a female midshipman, in a car parked outside a crowded party at a house rented by Tate’s teammates, and whether the alleged victim was too drunk to consent to sex. (The Washington Post does not generally identify alleged victims of sexual assault.)
The accuser has said she had a lot to drink that night and that her memory of the night is spotty. She said she did not remember having sex with Tate that night and that she learned from him the following day that they had. She also alleges that he repeatedly asked her if she had had a rape kit performed and that he described her condition that night as “too turnt up,” which prosecutors claim means overly intoxicated. Tate’s attorneys have attacked her credibility and said that any sexual activity that may have occurred was consensual. The accuser said she drank a lot and remembers little of that night. The defense argued that even though she did not remember what happened, she was in control of her faculties at the time.
“It is absolutely clear at that party [the accuser] is doing what she wants,” Cmdr. Art Record, an attorney for Tate, said in closing arguments. As he read the verdict, Daugherty said the case raised two questions: How drunk is too drunk? And how does one know someone is too drunk to engage in sexual activity?
Both sides called other midshipmen who were at the party to the stand to describe the alleged victim’s condition at the party. Prosecutors must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that she met the legal standard for being “substantially incapacitated,” in order to convict Tate of sexual assault. He said the investigation was hobbled by the delayed cooperation of the alleged victim and was unable to provide enough evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that she was too incapacitated to consent to sex.
The other partygoers, including the two former co-defendants, told the judge that the accuser had obviously been drinking, but they differed on her degree of intoxication. Christa Kamon, a friend of the alleged victim, said the accuser fell down on the dance floor and that her speech was slurred. Another attendee, Mitchell Kempisty, said he saw the accuser drinking later in the evening and “holding her own” with an unidentified man who was hitting on her. The alleged victim was not in the courtroom Thursday, but through her attorneys she said she was disappointed by the verdict. “She was appalled by the lack of accountability but hopes that her coming forward will result in meaningful reforms of the military justice system,” Ryan Guilds, one of the attorneys said.
Bush supplied a statement that said the accuser became angry with him early in the evening after he told her their on-again, off-again relationship was not going anywhere, which the defense seized on as motive for her behavior that night. The accuser’s attorneys, as well as Tate’s, said the case showed that the military’s system of dealing with sexual assault claims is broken, but for slightly different reasons.
“She got angry, and she went and behaved scandalously,” Record argued. Susan Burke, another attorney for the accuser, said the young woman was “twice victimized: first by her attacker and then by the failed investigation and prosecution of this case.”
Graham said he saw the accuser in a car with Tate and that after Graham got in the car, the alleged victim initiated a sexual encounter with him. He said she seemed capable of making decisions and communicating her desires. The defense also called an expert witness who said that her memory lapses did not mean she was incapacitated, and based on his review of the testimony, he said he did not believe she was incapacitated. Defense attorneys have criticized Burke in the past for using the alleged victim to advance a political agenda, a criticism Tate’s attorneys repeated Thursday.
Prosecutors, however, said the accuser was too drunk to make a competent decision, and therefore was substantially incapacitated under the law. “The system is broken in many different directions,” Tate’s lawyer Jason Ehrenberg said after the verdict. “Don’t use my client to advocate for a cause when you don’t know the evidence or my client.”
“This is about making a competent decision,” said prosecutor Lt. Cmdr. Phil Harmon. The verdict ends a winding and at times tortured case that almost didn’t come to trial.
He cited another expert witness who said a severely intoxicated person in the midst of a blackout would only be able to summon three to five minutes of memory. “That would not be a competent [juror],” Harmon said. “To have sexual intercourse is equally important and the law does not set a lower standard for competence and capacity for sex. . . . If that is not competent to stand trial or make a legal decision, why would they be competent to consent to sexual intercourse?” The accuser did not want to report the incident initially but was forced to after another student threatened to. She then refused to cooperate for nine months and even tried to get the defendants to lie to investigators in an effort to make the case go away. The probe was then halted in December 2012.
Harmon blasted the defense’s expert witness for taking witnesses at their word and not considering anyone’s credibility. He said the evidence showed that the alleged victim went missing from the party between 1 and 2 a.m., that Tate was seen in the car with her and that he later told her they had sex, while lying to investigators about his movements that night. It resumed the following month after the alleged victim began to cooperate. She went public with her allegations in May, saying the academy superintendent was trying to bury the case. The academy’s superintendent, Vice Adm. Michael Miller, then charged the three midshipmen.
“This is about making a competent decision,” Harmon said. “She was unable to make that competent decision to have sex when Tate had sex with her.” At a preliminary hearing last summer, lawyers for the three men kept the accuser on the stand for more than 20 hours of intense cross-examination. Accounts of the hearing convinced lawmakers to pass a law that limits the time an alleged victim must testify in those proceedings.
No matter what Daugherty rules, his decision in the closely watched case is likely to be controversial. Since the alleged victim went public with her allegations in May, the case has stoked criticism of the military’s handling of sexual assault claims. Miller sent Graham and Tate to face trial over the recommendations of a military judge and his own in-house counsel. That decision led to lawsuits against Miller by attorneys for both the accuser and the defendants, accusing Miller of caving to political pressure to move the case forward.
Charges were later dropped against Graham, and Tate was left to stand trial alone.
As the case progressed, the Congress passed changes to military law to limit the amount of time alleged victims have to testify at preliminary hearings known as an Article 32, based largely on the experience of the alleged victim in the Tate case.
Congress also curtailed the authority of commanders in sexual assault cases and imposed some civilian oversight.
But a separate bill that would have removed sexual assault cases from the military chain of command, among other measures, that was sponsored by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), recently failed a key vote in the Senate.
The changes in the laws, however, had no affect on Tate’s trial.