Ten sailors out of 12 original suspects have been found guilty for participating in an alleged ring that shared videos of female shipmates undressing aboard their sub, following a final non-judicial punishment hearing on Tuesday.
Nearly a year after documents confirmed that female officers and midshipmen had been filmed in the shower changing area aboard the submarine Wyoming for as long as 10 months, seven sailors have been court-martialed and three sent to captain's mast, leaving one of the original suspects awaiting proceedings.
The seventh court-martial convened in July, according to Navy officials, following three non-judicial punishments handed down in July.
A Bangor, Washington-based sailor who's assigned to under the authority to Submarine Group 9 in Bangor, Washington, was found guilty convicted at captain's mast of violating a general lawful order by failing to report the videos, a representative for Submarine Group 9 confirmed to Navy Times.
The sailor received a reduction in rank from E-5 to E-4 and order to forfeit half a month's pay for one month, Lt. Cmdr. Brian Badura said.
has been charged, Submarine Forces spokesman Cmdr. Tommy Crosby said. told Navy Times on Oct. 26.Details on the final sailor's charges — the 11th to be charged in the case — will be released once the sailor completes a captain's mast or is referred to Article 32, Crosby said.
The proceedings are wrapping up a year of investigations and prosecutions into the scandal aboard the submarine Wyoming. Sailors have been found guilty of tie up a year of investigations and prosecutions of a ring board the Kings Bay, Georgia-based boat, in which several junior enlisted sailors were found guilty of offenses from recording and distributing the cellphone videos to viewing them without reporting or lying about them to investigators about their knowledge of them videos. One sailor was has been acquitted at court-martial.
The revelations shocked the Silent Service late last year, three years into its effort to add women to the historically all male force. begin integrating submarines by assigning several female officers to a handful of ballistic missile submarines.
Two operations reports with initial details circulated through the submarine Navy last November, prompting national attention. Submarine Forces boss Vice Adm. Michael Connor said assured that the Navy would handle it.
"What some people thought was a high-schoolish prank was a serious sexual offense, with significant penalties," Connor told the Associated Press in January.
"Out of a force of 17,000 people we have a very small number of folks who didn't get it, and they're going to learn," he added during a talk at a veterans' hall Groton, Connecticut.
Four of the 24 women originally assigned to the service were filmed aboard Wyoming and testified at several of the courts-martial. Additionally, potentially dozens of female midshipmen were filmed while on cruise aboard the sub, and were notified of their potential involvement. But no videos of the mids have been found.
No videos of mids were every recovered, however, an official told Navy Times.
As of Oct. 27, seven sailors were tried in total, with two prison sentences and discharges, several short jail terms and one pay forfeiture.
The three who went to mast were charged with a violation of Article 92 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, for failing to report the videos.
Two of the three were reduced in rank from E-6 to E-5 and ordered to awarded forfeitureof half a month's pay for two months, plus a suspended 60 days restriction. That means they're free but on 60 days probation, and will be restricted if they are involved with any more misconduct.
A third sailor was also found guilty at mast for failing to report the videos and ordered to forfeit half a month's pay.
Those proceedings bring the tally to 11 sailors charged, 6 convicted at court-martial, one acquitted at court-martial and three found guilty at mast:
- Missile Technician 2nd Class Jonathan Ashby pleaded guilty to failing to report the videos. He had originally been charged with one count of conspiracy for facilitating a transfer of videos and three counts of sexual misconduct for transferring the videos. He was sentenced to four months confinement and reduction in paygrade to E-2.
- MT2 Ryan Secrest pleaded guilty to using a recording device underway, lying to investigators and filming midshipmen in the shower changing area. He was sentenced to 10 months in the brig, along with a reduction in paygrade to E-2 and a bad-conduct discharge.
- ET2 Joseph Bradley pleaded guilty to one count of distributing the videos. He was originally charged with one count of conspiracy for coordinating transfer, three counts of distributing and one count of destroying evidence. He was sentenced to 30 days in the brig and reduction to E-3.
- MT3 Class Cody Shoemaker, 22, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute videos, one count using a recording device and one count of viewing and filming female midshipmen in a private area. He sentenced to 18 months in prison and a bad-conduct discharge.
- MT3 Brandon McGarity pleaded guilty to two counts of failing to report the videos and one count of lyling about their existence. He was sentenced to 15 days' confinement, reduction in rank to E-2 and forfeiture of two-thirds of one month's pay.
- MT2 Charles Greaves pleaded guilty to one count each of recording and distributing videos, as well as one count of disrespecting a superior officer. The court drooped eight of his original 11 charges as part of a plea agreement to testify against the others charged. He was sentenced to two years in prison, a demotion to E-2 and a dishonorable discharge.
- MT3 Samuel Buchner was found not guilty of conspiracy to distribute videos at court-martial.
A decision on the final sailor's charges is forthcoming, Crosby said.
There are no plans to prosecute anymore sailors, Submarine Forces spokesman Cmdr. Tommy Crosby said.
Update: A previous version of the story said the final sailor was awaiting a decision on judicial proceedings as of Oct. 27. He has since been found guilty at a non-judicial punishment hearing.
Meghann Myers is the Pentagon bureau chief at Military Times. She covers operations, policy, personnel, leadership and other issues affecting service members.
