![]() ![]() The Coast Guard and Department of Justice did not comment on the status of the criminal investigation. His attorney said he was not authorized to comment on behalf of his client. Sison said he had no comment on the Coast Guard’s complaint but denied Hicks’ allegations. Jeremy Gauthier, the director of the Coast Guard Investigative Service, previously told CNN that the agency recently began engaging federal prosecutors sooner in the hopes that prosecution decisions are sped up so that actions taken against a credential can also happen more quickly. From Marine Engineers' Beneficial Association Hicks said she was outraged when she learned in a June 2022 meeting with prosecutors and Coast Guard investigators that Sison had been hired by another shipping company.Įdgar Sison told CNN he has no comment on the Coast Guard complaint but denied Hicks' allegations. A Maersk spokesperson also confirmed to CNN that Sison was found to have violated the company’s alcohol policy. Maersk’s US subsidiary said in February 2022 that it had fired Hicks’ alleged rapist for refusing to participate in an internal investigation and turned over the results of the inquiry to the government. “Recent decisions handed down by on sexual misconduct cases, such as those highlighted in the recent CNN story, are extremely troubling, and I don’t have a lot of confidence the court would do the right thing in my case either,” Hicks said. Yet mariners who have failed drug tests after using marijuana and even CBD oil have been stripped of their ability to work on ships. Claudia LaMantia/US ArmyĬNN’s investigation found that over the past decade, the agency hadn’t revoked a single credential for shipboard sexual misconduct. Hicks said her boss Edgar Sison plied her with alcohol and then raped her while working aboard the Alliance Fairfax when she was 19 years old. However, a spokesperson confirmed that a complaint alleging Sison violated company policy by “possessing and consuming” alcohol had been filed. “It shouldn’t be that difficult.”ĬNN was denied a copy of the Coast Guard’s complaint because a judge had not been assigned to the case. “I’m frustrated that any survivor would have to go on CNN and tell the world about the worst thing that ever happened to them in order to get the Coast Guard to take action against their assailant,” she said. This week, she said she was relieved something is finally being done but that it should have happened long before the latest CNN report. “This industry is not safe, and the Coast Guard must do more,” Hicks told CNN. ![]() Hicks and other mariners have criticized the agency for not moving more swiftly to investigate and temporarily remove potential predators from ships. What should we investigate next? Email us: many cases, the Coast Guard’s slow and secretive investigations have meant that there is little stopping an alleged perpetrator from continuing to work after an assault is reported. The investigation also found more than 25 mariners who held credentials after being convicted of sex crimes including rape, sexual battery, sexual assault and child molestation. Hicks’ long wait for any Coast Guard action was at the center of CNN’s recent report, which exposed how the agency has failed to prevent and punish sexual assault for decades and has long been lenient and inconsistent with sanctions for mariners found to have committed sexual offenses when compared with outcomes from cases where mariners used drugs, including marijuana. The Coast Guard typically waits to initiate administrative actions until a possible criminal case has been resolved, so focusing on an alleged alcohol violation seemingly allows the agency to go after Sison’s credential without jeopardizing the criminal probe. The agency’s criminal investigation into Hicks’ rape allegation was handed over to the Justice Department in early 2022, but a prosecution decision has yet to be reached. Hope Hicks was a senior at the US Merchant Marine Academy when she sparked a Me Too movement in the commercial shipping industry by coming forward with her story, first in an anonymous account posted online and then to Coast Guard investigators. (John Paraskevas/Newsday via AP) John Paraskevas/Newsday/APįailed oversight, lax punishments: How the Coast Guard has allowed sexual assault at sea to go unchecked ![]() Hope Hicks, a midshipman at the United States Merchant Marine Academy stands outside the academy's gate in Kings Point, N.Y., on Wednesday, June 15, 2022.
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