Crowley has been named as the lead defendant in a sexual assault lawsuit brought by a female cadet who alleged she was raped while serving sea duties on a vessel managed by the Florida shipping company.
The lawsuit also names as defendants the Seafarers International Union and its Seafarers Harvey Lundeberg School for Seamanship.
Crowley, the school and the seafarers union all declined to comment on the case.
In the suit, the plaintiff identified only as Jane Doe alleged that Willie Carnell Frink, the ship’s steward and the cadet’s direct supervisor, raped and sexually assaulted her in a hotel room on 11 November of last year.
The litigation comes amid growing awareness surrounding the problem of sexual assault and harassment on US-flagged ships, with a particular focus on cases involving cadets as victims.
And it was filed months after a court in the Northern Mariana Islands, a US commonwealth, dismissed criminal charges against Frink.
Both the steward and Doe had been working on the 44,500-gt USNS 2nd Lt John P Bobo (built 1985), a ro-ro owned by the US Navy’s Military Sealift Command and managed by Crowley.
They were ashore while the vessel called in Saipan, the capital of the Northern Mariana Islands, according to the lawsuit.
The plaintiff, 21, alleged that 40-year-old Frink had asked her earlier in the day to accompany him ashore to buy provisions for the ship.
After returning to the ship and storing provisions, Frink invited her to a movie, but he then took her to a hotel room after telling her, while they were in a car, that a movie would “disrupt his plans”, the plaintiff’s lawyers at Lipcon, Margulies & Winkleman said.
While in the hotel room, he persuaded her to put clothes on that he bought for her, according to court documents. She then quickly changed back to her original clothing and tried to gather her things and leave the room, but Frink allegedly did not let her grab all of her belongings.
They then went for a quick swim and then a drink at the hotel’s Aqua Resort before meeting up with co-workers for dinner. After drinking the drink that he bought her, she became dizzy, nauseous and confused, and she was periodically blacking out, the lawsuit alleged.
Frink allegedly brought the plaintiff back to the hotel room, where the lawyers alleged he raped and sexually assaulted her.
The plaintiff tried to resist, telling the assailant “no” and that she was a virgin who was on her period, but her lawyers accused Frink of easily overpowering her in her weakened and confused state.
Doe did not report the incident to the ship’s first mate until the morning, fearing repercussions to her job and career and for her safety, the lawsuit alleged. She asked for medical attention and for law enforcement be notified of the incident, according to documents.
The plaintiff, who seeks in excess of $30,000 for damages, brought six counts against Crowley in the lawsuit. The claims are for Jones Act negligence, unseaworthiness, failure to provide maintenance and cure, failure to treat, general negligence and vicarious liability.
The other defendants face counts of Jones Act negligence and general negligence, documents stated.
Frink was arrested in November 2022 and charged with one count of first-degree sexual assault for the alleged rape, according to local news publication Marianas Variety.
But in a preliminary hearing later that month, the islands’ Superior Court dismissed the charges, citing a lack of probable cause, the newspaper reported.
This story has been amended since publication to reflect the correct build date of the ship.
