The US Coast Guard is prosecuting a mariner in an effort to revoke his licence over a past sexual assault conviction involving a child, according to documents seen by TradeWinds.
The move by the agency’s investigators comes months after they reached a settlement deal with another seafarer accused of sexual abuse of a minor.
Amid a climate in which the Coast Guard is under greater pressure to tackle sexual assault and harassment in shipping, the case emerges two years after a high-profile case in which a previously convicted captain was accused of raping a cadet.
Documents filed with the Coast Guard’s administrative law judge system in 2023 show that agency prosecutors filed charges against the licence of Jacob Robert Sterling, whose employer is not mentioned in the documents.
The Coast Guard is seeking revocation of his licence.
The agency alleged in the complaint that Sterling was convicted in 2016 of “carnal knowledge of a child” in Virginia.
The victim in that case was between 13 and 15 years old.
The Coast Guard investigating officer in the case said in the revocation complaint that the conviction constitutes a sexual assault.
Default decision sought
Then in July this year, Coast Guard investigators asked the administrative law judge to issue a default order revoking Sterling’s licence because he has not answered the charges.
“Respondent’s default constitutes an admission of all facts alleged in the complaint and a waiver of the respondent’s right to a hearing,” chief investigator Natalie Cordes wrote.
TradeWinds could not immediately find contact information for Sterling.
A ruling by the judge has yet to be posted on the Coast Guard’s administrative law docket.
Settlement deal
Meanwhile, Coast Guard documents show another mariner, Mark Richard Crall, agreed to surrender his licence in September over alleged abuse of a minor.
The Coast Guard accused Mark Richard Crall, whose employer was not named, of inappropriately touching the penis and buttocks of a juvenile while on the waters of Lake Norman in North Carolina in 2022.
The agency said this constitutes sexual assault.
Ryan Melogy, a lawyer who runs the nonprofit Maritime Legal Aid & Advocacy, said the prosecution against Sterling comes as the Coast Guard has pushed to find more cases of mariners with past convictions working in the US merchant marine.
And he believes that was fuelled by the case against former Liberty Maritime captain John Merrone, who surrendered his licence in 2022 after allegations that he drugged two female cadets from the US Merchant Marine Academy and raped one of them.
The incident is alleged to have taken place on board the 50,600-dwt bulker Liberty Glory (built 2001).
Legal records show Merrone was convicted in 2011 after a woman accused him of raping her, holding her in his apartment and breaking her toe. He was found not guilty of rape but sentenced to a Florida prison for false imprisonment and battery.
He was released in 2013 when his conviction was overturned and sent back to the lower court for a new trial.
Overturned conviction
The Coast Guard told CNN in 2022 that it was unaware of the conviction until it had already been overturned two years later, so the agency took no action.
TradeWinds subsequently obtained a document filed in a court in Key West, Florida, explaining why prosecutors chose not to go ahead with the prosecution.
Merrone, whose lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story, had already served a prison sentence, completed an anger management course and paid restitution to the victim, wrote Colleen Dunne, who at the time was assistant state attorney for Florida’s 16th Judicial Circuit.
The document was not available online, and could only be viewed in person at the courthouse.
The Coast Guard did not respond to TradeWinds’ questions about the prosecution of seafarers with past convictions.
This article has been amended since publication to reflect that the allegations are against Jacob Robert Sterling.
