Stock Photo: Shutterstock/Emils Lukso
A former U.S. merchant ship captain has pleaded guilty to federal charges stemming from the drugging and sexual assault of a U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA) cadet aboard a commercial vessel, bringing one of the maritime industry’s most closely watched criminal cases to a close ahead of trial.
John Merrone pleaded guilty Friday in federal court in Brooklyn to all five counts of an indictment charging him with aggravated sexual abuse, sexual abuse, and abusive sexual contact. He entered the plea after a jury had already been selected for trial.
When sentenced, Merrone faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Merrone admitted that he knowingly gave the 21-year-old cadet an intoxicating substance without her knowledge or consent, leaving her incapacitated before sexually assaulting her aboard the U.S.-flagged cargo ship Liberty Glory in September 2019.
“The defendant today admitted abusing his authority as a ship captain to carry out a heinous sexual assault on a young woman, who was under his supervision, as she embarked on a career as a mariner,” U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. said in a statement. “It is my hope that today’s guilty plea will give the survivor of this attack some measure of closure knowing that the defendant has been held accountable for his despicable conduct.”
The FBI said the case involved a profound abuse of trust.
“Former Captain John Merrone grossly violated his authority by drugging and raping a U.S. Merchant Marine cadet training aboard his ship,” said James C. Barnacle Jr., assistant director in charge of the FBI’s New York Field Office. “The FBI is dedicated to holding accountable those in trusted roles from heinously abusing the brave servicemembers protecting this country.”
The assault occurred while the victim was participating in the USMMA’s Sea Year program, which places cadets aboard commercial vessels for hands-on training.
Federal prosecutors said Merrone, then 47 and the vessel’s master, summoned the victim and another female cadet to his stateroom while the ship was sailing through the Atlantic Ocean en route to Corpus Christi, Texas, after departing Bahrain.
After serving both cadets alcoholic drinks from an open bottle, prosecutors said the women lost memory of the remainder of the evening.
The victim awoke the next morning partially clothed, suffering from nausea and a headache, with signs indicating she had been sexually assaulted. According to prosecutors, Merrone later called her back to his stateroom, told her they had “fun last night,” and asked if she wanted to do it again. When she said she could not remember what had happened, he allegedly responded that “one thing led to another.”
The victim reported the assault to her mother and a friend after returning to the United States and later sought medical care. She reported the assault to law enforcement in 2021.
The Justice Department filed criminal charges against Merrone in June 2025, marking what attorneys involved in the case described as the first federal criminal prosecution for sexual assault aboard a U.S.-flag commercial vessel in more than four decades.
The case became a focal point in broader scrutiny of sexual assault and harassment within the U.S. maritime industry and at the Merchant Marine Academy.
Merrone had previously been convicted in Florida of false imprisonment and battery but continued working aboard commercial vessels while USMMA continued assigning cadets to ships under his command.
Following public reporting of the allegations in 2022, the American Maritime Officers union expelled Merrone, citing multiple credible allegations. He also surrendered his Merchant Mariner Credential to the U.S. Coast Guard and accepted a lifetime ban from the U.S. maritime industry.
The case emerged amid wider allegations of sexual assault during USMMA Sea Year training after former cadet Hope Hicks, widely known as “Midshipman X,” publicly revealed she had been raped by a superior officer aboard a U.S.-flag vessel during her 2019 Sea Year assignment.
The revelations prompted the academy to temporarily suspend the Sea Year program in late 2021 before reinstating it with new policies and safeguards intended to better protect cadets from sexual assault and sexual harassment.
The case was investigated by the FBI and the U.S. Coast Guard. Federal prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York’s Human Trafficking and Civil Rights Section handled the prosecution.
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