In the glare of the headlines generated by the Duke lacrosse case, a sad story of sexual misconduct at the US Naval Academy seems to have flown under the national radar. Last Thursday, the Navy expelled former Quarterback Lamar Owens Jr. after a military jury acquitted Owens of rape charges.
The verdict followed a ten-day court martial and took only four hours of jury deliberation. The jury did, however, find Owens guilty of conduct unbecoming an officer for violating company rules regarding sexual contact on campus. Owens faced the prospect of life imprisonment had he been found guilty of the rape charges. Despite the military jury’s recommendation of no punishment for what Owens had called “consensual sex” with a female midshipman in her room, Vice Admiral Rodney Rempt, Superintendent of the Navel Academy, said after expelling Owens, “any allegation of sexual harassment, misconduct or assault is a sad event.”
Things got worse for Owens when US Secretary of the Navy Donald Winter called the behavior “unsatisfactory” and hit Owens with a bill for nearly $91,000 to reimburse the Navy for educational expenses incurred while Owens was at the Academy. The case is somewhat similar to the Black Sox scandal of the early 1920s, when a jury acquitted members of the 1919 Chicago White Sox for “throwing” the World Series only for Commissioner Kennesaw Mountain Landis to later suspend them for life “in the best interests of the game.”
Owens led Navy to a 9-4 season in 2006, culminating in a narrow 25-24 loss to #23 ranked Boston College in the Poinsettia Bowl. Just two days prior to Owens’ expulsion, a military jury sentenced another former Navy football player, Kenny Ray Morrison, to a two-year prison term for assaulting a fellow student last year.
Sexual misconduct at the military academies is yet another thorn in the defense department’s side since allegations of pervasive problems first broke at the Air Force Academy in 2003.
A quick note on the passing this week of Sid Brooks. T.J. Simers of the LA Times called Brooks a gem of a man, stating he never knew a man who had more friends. Sid was a guy who couldn’t stay retired. He retired from the Air Force after 20-plus years only to work for the San Diego Chargers for 27 more. Then he retired again only to be coaxed to USC by Trojan athletic director Mike Garrett, where “Doc” stood on the sidelines for two National Championships. The “Doc” will be sorely missed.
