WASHINGTON - The former quarterback of the U.S. Naval Academy football team said Friday that he hopes to salvage his military career despite a felony conviction stemming from a sexual relationship he had with a fellow midshipman.
"I still want to be a Naval officer," Midshipman Lamar S. Owens Jr., told the five Naval officers on the jury panel that acquitted him Thursday of a rape charge lodged by the young woman. Owens said the ordeal that began within days of the Jan. 29 encounter that resulted in his court-martial will make him a better officer capable of dealing with adversity. "You always have to be on your guard because every decision you make could be an important decision," Owens told the court.
Since early February, Owens has been in limbo. While he completed his studies with a 2.7 grade point average over four years, he has not been awarded his economics degree. He also did receive his ensign's commission with other 2006 graduates. Instead of beginning training as a surface warfare officer, Owens is spending a fifth summer at the school that trains future Naval and Marine Corps officers. Whether he gets a fleet commission could hinge on a decision made by Vice Adm. Rodney P. Rempt, the academy's superintendent who referred the Owens case for court-martial.
The jury's decision sends the case back to Annapolis, where Rempt will have the options of dismissing the midshipman from the academy, or allowing him to graduate, and perhaps pursue his dream. "Preventing and deterring sexual harassment, misconduct and assault is a critically important issue," Rempt said in written statement released by the academy. The statement offered no information on how Owens' status will be resolved, but did indicate that the Academy respects the findings of the court.
Still, Owens' actions last winter violated several academy regulations, including those prohibiting sexual contact on campus and fraternization between members of the same company. There is also the Feb. 15 violation of a written military protective order which required Owens to stay out of the vicinity of his accuser and her room, one floor below his in Bancroft Hall.
According to Lt. Cmdr. Jennifer Roper, the academy's legal adviser, such administrative violations have been considered on a case-by-case basis, even when they have involved midshipman from the academy's leadership cadre. "There have been some separated, and some retained," said Roper, who was called as a witness by the defense during the mitigation phase of the sentencing hearing. She told the court that some midshipmen facing administrative penalties do graduate and are commissioned.
Since 2001, there have been 56 rape accusations at the Naval Academy resulting in two convictions, including one in a civilian court. Others accused in those cases were disciplined within the academy's conduct system and allowed to resign. Some experts believe that stepped up investigations and prosecutions of such cases indicate a commitment by the service academies to confront the problem.
"I still want to be a Naval officer," Midshipman Lamar S. Owens Jr., told the five Naval officers on the jury panel that acquitted him Thursday of a rape charge lodged by the young woman. Owens said the ordeal that began within days of the Jan. 29 encounter that resulted in his court-martial will make him a better officer capable of dealing with adversity. "You always have to be on your guard because every decision you make could be an important decision," Owens told the court.
Since early February, Owens has been in limbo. While he completed his studies with a 2.7 grade point average over four years, he has not been awarded his economics degree. He also did receive his ensign's commission with other 2006 graduates. Instead of beginning training as a surface warfare officer, Owens is spending a fifth summer at the school that trains future Naval and Marine Corps officers. Whether he gets a fleet commission could hinge on a decision made by Vice Adm. Rodney P. Rempt, the academy's superintendent who referred the Owens case for court-martial.
The jury's decision sends the case back to Annapolis, where Rempt will have the options of dismissing the midshipman from the academy, or allowing him to graduate, and perhaps pursue his dream. "Preventing and deterring sexual harassment, misconduct and assault is a critically important issue," Rempt said in written statement released by the academy. The statement offered no information on how Owens' status will be resolved, but did indicate that the Academy respects the findings of the court.
Still, Owens' actions last winter violated several academy regulations, including those prohibiting sexual contact on campus and fraternization between members of the same company. There is also the Feb. 15 violation of a written military protective order which required Owens to stay out of the vicinity of his accuser and her room, one floor below his in Bancroft Hall.
According to Lt. Cmdr. Jennifer Roper, the academy's legal adviser, such administrative violations have been considered on a case-by-case basis, even when they have involved midshipman from the academy's leadership cadre. "There have been some separated, and some retained," said Roper, who was called as a witness by the defense during the mitigation phase of the sentencing hearing. She told the court that some midshipmen facing administrative penalties do graduate and are commissioned.
Since 2001, there have been 56 rape accusations at the Naval Academy resulting in two convictions, including one in a civilian court. Others accused in those cases were disciplined within the academy's conduct system and allowed to resign. Some experts believe that stepped up investigations and prosecutions of such cases indicate a commitment by the service academies to confront the problem.
Read Comments About Case
(Very interesting, yet sad to see so many individuals still play the blame the victim game.)
(Very interesting, yet sad to see so many individuals still play the blame the victim game.)
CASE BACKGROUND:
WASHINGTON — Former U.S. Naval Academy quarterback Lamar Owens Jr. and a female student who says he raped her agree on some basic facts — Owens was in the woman's dorm room early one January morning, and the two had sex.
But it will be up to a military jury to decide whether it was a consensual encounter or whether the star football player sexually assaulted the woman. The woman testified for six hours as Owens' court-martial on rape and other charges began at the Washington Navy Yard.
She said she awoke to find Owens standing next to her bunk, trying to kiss her. The next thing she knew, he was on top of her. But a lawyer for Owens said in opening statements that the woman beckoned Owens to her dorm room with an instant message, and that she gave her consent for the sex. Reid Weingarten said Owens showed poor judgment by going to the woman's room, but cut off the encounter when he realized the drunk woman had blacked out in bed. "There is no way in the world this young man committed rape," Weingarten told the jury of five Navy personnel.
Owens, 22, of Savannah, Ga., is charged with rape, conduct unbecoming an officer, and violating a protective order. If convicted, he would be eligible for a maximum term of life in prison.
Owens led Navy's football team to an 8-4 record that included victories over military academy rivals Air Force and Army and a victory in the Poinsettia Bowl over Colorado State. He was the team's most valuable player, but did not graduate along with his class in the spring because of the criminal investigation.
Much of the case rests on the spotty memory of the woman, a 20-year-old who was a third year student at the time of the Jan. 29 incident. She said she had eight drinks that night, including several shots of liquor, at an Annapolis restaurant and later at a bar near the academy. She couldn't remember portions of the night, including a brief period during the alleged rape.
While she said she did not explicitly tell Owens to stop, she said she didn't give her consent to sex and tried to show it by refusing his kisses and trying to wriggle away when he got on top of her. The woman said she told Owens she had a boyfriend. She said Owens had been flirtatious with her throughout the year in instant messages and other contacts between them. She said she didn't have any contact with Owens the night of the alleged rape, but Weingarten said she sent an instant message to Owens telling him to come to her room. The woman said she did not remember doing that.
Weingarten spent much of his lengthy cross-examination attacking the woman's credibility, saying she concocted the story of rape to cover her own infractions, calling her a "serial violator" of academy rules. (Blaming the Victim!) In return for her testimony, she was given immunity from punishment for academy violations such as underage drinking.
Owens is one of two Navy football players to face court-martial for sexual assault at the Washington Navy Yard this month. Kenny Ray Morrison, of Kingwood, Texas, entered a not-guilty plea Friday to charges of indecent assault and conduct unbecoming an officer for a Feb. 4 incident. An academy instructor also has a special court-martial set for August for allegedly making sexually crude remarks to a female midshipman. The academy has been under close scrutiny following the release of a Pentagon report last summer criticizing it for not doing enough to stop abuse and following allegations of sexual abuse at the nation's other military academies.
WORDS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES--EVEN HIS OWN ADMISSION DIDN'T MATTER!
July 14, 2006 WASHINGTON (AP) -Jurors at the military trial of a former Naval Academy quarterback listened Friday to a tape of a phone call in which the player apologized to a female midshipman he is accused of raping in her dorm room.
On the tape, Lamar Owens Jr. spoke in a soft voice and apparently wept at times. He said he considered committing suicide after the encounter and told the woman he "didn't do it for long" and that "you weren't awake." Owens never used the word "rape" in the conversation, nor did he respond when the woman asked, "Why don't you call my dad, tell him you raped his daughter?"
The defense wanted to prevent the jury from hearing the tape, arguing that the call had been scripted by investigators. They said Owens only agreed to take the call because he believed the woman had reported the incident to authorities and was afraid of antagonizing her. But Navy Cmdr. John Maksym ruled that Navy investigators had followed proper procedures. "There's no way I can imagine how it made you feel," Owens said on the tape. Later, he apologized to the accuser, saying "When I woke up the next day and I called you, I really wanted to kill myself, and I still feel that way." The tape was made Feb. 8; the alleged rape took place Jan. 29.
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