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thedrifter
04-10-07, 03:44 PM
Midshipman gets 2 years, dismissal from Navy
By Stephen Manning - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Apr 10, 2007 15:19:25 EDT

WASHINGTON — A Naval Academy midshipman convicted of sexually assaulting a fellow student should spend two years in prison and be dismissed from the Navy, a military jury said Tuesday.

The decision will be reviewed by academy superintendent Vice Admiral Rodney Rempt.

Midshipman 1st Class Kenny Ray Morrison showed little reaction as the jury’s decision was announced. He shook his attorney’s hand, then glanced over at the victim as he left the courtroom at the Washington Navy Yard.

A jury of seven Navy and Marine Corps officers found Morrison guilty Monday of indecent assault and conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman for forcing himself on a female midshipman at a Washington hotel in February 2006. Prosecutors had sought a three to five-year prison term along with dismissal from the Navy.

Morrison pleaded for leniency Tuesday as the jury considered his penalty, saying he had already been punished enough.

Morrison, 24, noted he will have to register as a sex offender, will likely have to repay the $140,000 cost of his education at the Annapolis military school and will probably forgo his dream of entering politics and eventually becoming governor of Texas, his home state. He also claimed he has suffered from widespread publicity the case has brought.

Despite Monday’s conviction, Morrison told jurors he still wanted to serve in the Navy, apologizing to the academy and alumni and saying he loved his four years at the military school.

“I still love the Navy with all my heart,” he said.

Testifying for the prosecution, the woman said her life has also been irreparably changed by the incident, in which she said Morrison had sex with her three times without her consent.

An only child, she said it was difficult to describe details of the assault to her parents. She spent the past year wondering how many of her classmates knew, withdrawing from her fellow students because of the humiliation she felt.

“I’ve lost some amount of dignity. I’ve lost part of myself I can’t get back,” the woman, now a senior, testified.

Morrison is the second Navy football player to be court-martialed for sexual assault in the past 12 months. Last summer, star quarterback Lamar Owens Jr. was cleared of rape but found guilty of lesser offenses. The academy superintendent recommended he be dismissed without graduating, but the Navy secretary is reviewing that proposal.

Owens appeared in the small Washington Navy Yard courtroom Tuesday as Morrison’s family and friends took the stand to plead Morrison’s case. Owens sat next to Morrison’s parents and showed the midshipman passages from the Bible during a break.

Morrison, of Kingwood, Texas, is a former backup linebacker on the football team. He was scheduled to graduate in the spring of 2006, but has remained a midshipman as his legal case continued.

He was court-martialed for two incidents of alleged sexual assault, one at the Washington hotel, the other two months later at an Annapolis apartment. The jury found him not guilty of the Annapolis incident.

Allegations Morrison used a “date rape” drug to help him assault the women were dropped because of problems with forensic evidence.

In the hotel case, the woman said she fell asleep in a hotel room and awoke to find Morrison standing next to her, and that he eventually had sex with her. Morrison said he stumbled across her by accident when he was looking for a place to sleep, and that she came on to him and gave her consent.

The second incident took place in April 2006 while Morrison was under investigation for the assault at the hotel.

The woman, the Marine lieutenant, said she saw Morrison at an Annapolis bar and accepted a beer from him. Her next memory was waking up more than nine hours later, naked in bed next to Morrison.

Morrison’s lawyer, William Ferris, said the woman only suspected, but could not say for sure, that Morrison had sex with her without her consent.

thedrifter
04-11-07, 07:18 AM
Jury urges prison for midshipman
From Times Wire Reports
April 11, 2007

A Naval Academy midshipman convicted of sexually assaulting a fellow student should spend two years in prison and be dismissed from the Navy, a military jury said.

The decision will be reviewed by academy superintendent Vice Admiral Rodney Rempt.

Kenny Ray Morrison, 24, showed little reaction as the jury's decision was announced. The jury of seven Navy and Marine Corps officers found Morrison guilty Monday of indecent assault and conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman.

Ellie