A US Coast Guard judge has thrown out a sexual assault case against Edgar Torrecampo Sison after the former AP Moller-Maersk engineer agreed to surrender his licence to work at sea.
Administrative law judge Tommy Cantrell dismissed the case under a law that allows mariners facing such charges to give up their merchant mariner credentials to avoid facing a hearing, according to documents obtained by TradeWinds.
The decision came shortly after TradeWinds reported on Tuesday that the Coast Guard added sexual assault charges to a case against Sison’s licence over allegations in the high-profile Midshipman X case. And that move followed federal prosecutors’ decision to decline to prosecute Sison.
The developments mean that Sison will not face criminal charges over allegations that he sexually assaulted a US Merchant Marine Academy cadet when she was serving her year at sea on the 6,000-ceu car carrier Alliance Fairfax (built 2006) but that he will no longer be able to sail on US-flag ships.
Sison and his lawyer did not respond to TradeWinds’ request for comment for this story.
Coast Guard records show that investigating officer Orlando Hernandez, who had filed the charge that sought to revoke Sison’s licence after the seafarer agreed to surrender his licence instead of facing a hearing over the charges.
As TradeWinds has reported, the case against him emerged out of allegations in an account by an anonymous cadent named Midshipman X, who later revealed herself as Hope Hicks, over her rape while spending her year at sea on the Alliance Fairfax by the ship’s first assistant engineer. At the time, the vessel was on charter to Maersk’s US-flag unit, Maersk Line Ltd.
The Coast Guard originally charged Sison with an alcohol violation and sought a suspension of his licence while the US Justice Department considered criminal charges.
But when federal prosecutors declined to move forward, Hernandez added the charge that Sison engaged in a “sexual act with a junior crew member” who had been unable to consent, which the investigator said amounted to sexual abuse.
Hicks’ lawyer, Maritime Legal Aid & Advocacy founder Ryan Melogy, told TradeWinds that he was disappointed that the Justice Department declined to prosecute, but he expressed frustration with the government’s lawyers for taking so long to make a decision and with the process to get there.
“By putting herself through this difficult ordeal, Hope has forced those in power to examine the legal framework that is supposed to protect American mariners at sea, and she has exposed enormous gaps in that framework,” he said.
“These gaps must be quickly addressed by Congress, and I’m hopeful that will happen.”
