Cadet expelled, gets 6 months in sex case
NEW LONDON, Conn. (AP) — A military jury sentenced a Coast Guard cadet to six months in prison and kicked him out of the service Wednesday for extorting sexual favors from a classmate.
Cadet Webster Smith, the first student court-martialed in the academy’s 130-year history, was acquitted of rape but had faced up to five years and seven months for extortion, sodomy, indecent assault and other charges.
Defense attorneys for Smith, 23, of Houston, asked the jury to spare him jail time, saying the stigma of his conviction will follow him forever. He will not graduate from the Coast Guard Academy and must register as a sex offender in Texas.
“I am ashamed to have been the first cadet to have been court-martialed, but I am proud of my decision to fight for my career and freedom,” Smith told the jury.
Prosecutors had asked the jury to send Smith to prison for three years, saying he had disgraced the Coast Guard and betrayed the nation’s trust.
“You get to tell your fellow Coast Guardsmen, with everyone looking at our service and our academy, whether or not that’s a big deal,” said Cmdr. Ronald Bald, the prosecutor.
The case involved four female cadets, but the jury acquitted him of sexual misconduct charges, including rape, involving three of them. The primary charges on which he was convicted stemmed from a series of sexual encounters with a classmate in her dorm room.
The classmate said she was too afraid to protest because she feared Smith would reveal a secret that could have jeopardized her Coast Guard career. Smith, who testified in his own defense, said the sex was consensual.
Smith was not allowed to graduate with his class this spring and will be kicked out of the academy because of the convictions, attorneys said. A formal dismissal has not been made.
Defense attorneys said they planned to ask the school superintendent, Rear Adm. James Van Sice, to set aside the sentence, but a decision was not expected immediately.
Neither prosecutors nor jurors would comment.
Read full article: USA Today
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