A former merchant ship captain pleaded guilty in federal court on Wednesday to drugging and sexually assaulting a U.S. Merchant Marine Academy cadet aboard a vessel he commanded in 2019, admitting to all five counts of an indictment that carries a potential life sentence.
John Merrone, of Hohenwald, Tenn., entered the plea to charges of aggravated sexual abuse, sexual abuse and abusive sexual contact relating to the rape of a 21-year-old USMMA student cadet, identified in court papers only as Jane Doe. He pleaded guilty a day after a jury had been selected, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York. Merrone entered the plea just as his trial was set to begin, with the cadet in the courthouse prepared to testify as the government's first witness.
The cadet was serving aboard the Liberty Maritime Corp. bulk carrier Liberty Glory in September 2019 as part of the academy's Sea Year Program, in which midshipmen are assigned to U.S.-flagged merchant vessels to gain sea experience required for a Coast Guard officer's license. The ship was in the Atlantic Ocean bound for Corpus Christi, Texas.
Prosecutors said Merrone, then 47, summoned the cadet and another female cadet to his stateroom on Sept. 9, 2019, ostensibly for a soda, and poured each of them an alcoholic drink from an open bottle. Both women lost recollection of the rest of the evening shortly after consuming the drinks. The cadet awoke the next morning in her bed, partially undressed, feeling nauseous and as though someone had had sex with her.
The following day, according to the office, Merrone called the cadet to his stateroom, told her he had "fun last night" and asked her to do it again. When she said she did not recall what had happened, Merrone told her "one thing led to another." She reported the assault to her mother and a friend after returning to the United States and sought medical attention, and reported it to law enforcement in 2021.
At the plea hearing, Merrone admitted that he knowingly gave the cadet an intoxicant without her knowledge or consent, causing her to become incapacitated, and then had sex with her without her consent.
"The defendant today admitted abusing his authority as a ship captain to carry out a heinous sexual assault on a young woman, who was under his supervision, as she embarked on a career as a mariner," U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. said in a statement. "It is my hope that today's 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."
FBI Assistant Director in Charge James C. Barnacle Jr. said Merrone "grossly violated his authority by drugging and raping a U.S. Merchant Marine cadet training aboard his ship," adding that the bureau "is dedicated to holding accountable those in trusted roles from heinously abusing the brave servicemembers protecting this country."
Nocella also credited the U.S. Coast Guard for its investigative work.
Prosecutors had planned to call several other women who have accused Merrone of assaults over the past three decades, according to The Associated Press. Merrone was previously convicted of false imprisonment and battery in a case involving a Florida Keys waitress, but an appeals court overturned that verdict and prosecutors did not retry it. Merrone remains free on $200,000 bond while he faces a statutory maximum of life, prosecutors estimated sentencing guidelines of roughly 188 to 235 months, Courthouse News reported.
The case follows years of scrutiny of the Sea Year program, which was suspended in 2016 and again in November 2021 amid reports of sexual assault and harassment aboard commercial vessels. In December 2021, the Maritime Administration and USMMA introduced mandatory Every Mariner Builds a Respectful Culture (EMBARC) standards that vessel operators must adopt before they can carry cadets.
The prosecution is being handled by the office's Human Trafficking and Civil Rights Section, with Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kayla Bensing and Rachel Bennek leading the case. Merrone, listed at age 54, is charged under E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 25-CR-171 (RER). A sentencing date was not announced.
