Navy chaplain charged with sex offenses
By Bradley Olson and Josh Mitchell | Sun reporters
1:39 PM EST, December 5, 2007
A Navy chaplain and Catholic priest who recently served at the U.S. Naval Academy is scheduled to be court-martialed tomorrow on charges that he had sexual encounters with men, according to a news account and military officials.
The allegations of consensual and nonconsensual sex involving Lt. Cmdr. John Thomas Matthew Lee, 41, took place over a number of years, and were not limited to his time at the Marine Corps base in Quantico, Va., where the military trial will take place, said Maj. Timothy Keefe, a spokesman at the base.
Lee has been stationed at Quantico for the past eight months, and served at the academy from 2003 to 2006.
Plea Deal Expected In Military Sex Case
Chaplain Accused Of Abusing Power
By Josh White and Michelle Boorstein
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, December 6, 2007; A01
A Navy chaplain who is HIV-positive is expected to plead guilty this morning to charges that he used his positions at the U.S. Naval Academy and Marine Corps Base Quantico to lure midshipmen and Marines into sex acts, according to military officials and sources familiar with the case.
Marine Corps officials announced yesterday that Lt. Cmdr. John Thomas Matthew Lee, 42, who is a Catholic priest, is scheduled to face a court-martial at Quantico on charges that stem from several alleged incidents from 2003 to 2007. The charges include consensual and forcible sodomy for allegedly having sex with several men; indecent acts for allegedly posing for nude photographs; aggravated assault for not informing an alleged victim of his HIV status; and conduct unbecoming an officer.
It is unclear whether any of the men has been infected with HIV. But prosecutors allege that Lee, knowing he had tested positive for the virus in 2005, had sex with an Air Force lieutenant colonel in December of last year and exposed him to the virus without telling him.
In another instance, court documents also indicate that Lee fraternized with one midshipman over a two-year period after the student came to him for counseling and advice in 2004. Lee offered the underage midshipman alcohol, engaged in sex acts, asked him to take nude photographs of Lee and e-mailed him pornographic photos of naked men, according to the documents. The Washington Post generally does not identify victims of sex crimes.
Lee was a chaplain at the Naval Academy from September 2003 to October of last year, and investigators found that he had sex or inappropriate contact with several men, including some academy students who went to him for counseling after they were identified as homosexuals, the documents and sources indicate.
One source familiar with the case, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Lee would start conversations with the midshipmen and then invite them to his office, where he allegedly had them take nude pictures of him before he would initiate sex. A charge of forcible sodomy could result if Lee used his rank to have sex with subordinates.
A Naval Academy spokeswoman declined to comment on the case because it is an ongoing legal matter. Marine Corps and Navy officials also declined to comment.
Lee is also accused of using his government computer at Quantico to search for and save almost 375 pornographic images, to send people lewd pictures of himself and to solicit sexual encounters over the Internet. Lee also had inappropriate sexual contact with a Marine corporal while at Quantico, court documents indicate.
Lee faces a potential maximum life sentence without parole in the forcible sodomy charge, but his attorney, David P. Sheldon, said Lee has reached a plea agreement. Sheldon declined to discuss terms of the deal.
"Chaplain Lee will be pleading guilty before a general court-martial," Sheldon said. "He has entered into a pretrial agreement with the government that will substantially reduce his exposure to confinement. He's extremely remorseful about what happened and about his conduct, both as a chaplain and as an officer. He will take responsibility for what he has done."
Lee, a career chaplain from Phoenixville, Pa., was commissioned an officer in November 1988, according to Navy records, and served worldwide, including with the 1st Marine Division at Camp Pendleton, at Pearl Harbor and in Italy, before arriving at the Naval Academy in 2003. He was reassigned to Quantico in November of last year and was relieved of his duties in June, when an alleged victim contacted the military.
Lee was ordained in 1993 as a priest of the Washington Archdiocese, in a joint program with the archdiocese that serves Catholics in the military. The Washington Archdiocese includes the District and its Maryland suburbs.
For three years, Lee served as an associate pastor at St. Jerome parish in Hyattsville, and he then began his service with the Navy, Washington Archdiocese spokeswoman Susan Gibbs said. She said Lee came to the military archdiocese in June, saying he was "facing allegations of adult sexual misconduct."
Both archdioceses then withdrew Lee's credentials to operate as a priest. Gibbs said officials did not push for more details because they "didn't have any information, and it was a military investigation."
The Archdiocese for the Military Services, which oversaw Lee as a priest, issued a statement last night saying it had no prior knowledge of the allegations before Lee reported them in June.
The Rev. Thomas P. Doyle, a former Air Force chaplain who lives in Vienna and advocates full time for victims of sexual abuse by clergy members, said yesterday that Catholics should not be upset that church officials weren't more involved.
"My experience in 20-some years is that the church is the last outfit that does it right," Doyle said. "The proper investigation and execution of justice will happen with the military, not the church."
Doyle, who was a military chaplain for almost 20 years, said as a priest, Lee would have a different type of contact with low-ranking troops than a typical officer would. "He can do things, go places and have access to enlisted personnel no other officers can, because of rules against fraternization," he said. Officers typically "don't spend time in dorms, don't eat dinner with cadets. But he could do that."
The case comes amid a string of alleged sexual misconduct incidents at the Naval Academy, including a former star quarterback being convicted last year of conduct unbecoming an officer after he was accused and cleared of raping a female midshipman. Another ex-football player was convicted of indecent assault in April, and last month a Navy physician was sentenced to four years in prison for using a hidden camera at his home to tape midshipmen having sex.
A Roman Catholic priest and former chaplain at the Naval Academy who is HIV-positive is expected to plead guilty today to exploiting his position of authority to have sexual relations - both forced and consensual - with male service members, according to military officials and sources familiar with the case.
Lt. Cmdr. John Thomas Lee, 42, came into contact with some of his alleged victims, including gay midshipmen, after they were referred to him for counseling under the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy on homosexuality, sources said....
Plea Deal Expected In Military Sex Case (Washington Post)
Chaplain Accused Of Abusing Power
Quote:
A Navy chaplain who is HIV-positive is expected to plead guilty this morning to charges that he used his positions at the U.S. Naval Academy and Marine Corps Base Quantico to lure midshipmen and Marines into sex acts, according to military officials and sources familiar with the case.
Marine Corps officials announced yesterday that Lt. Cmdr. John Thomas Matthew Lee, 42, who is a Catholic priest, is scheduled to face a court-martial at Quantico on charges that stem from several alleged incidents from 2003 to 2007. The charges include consensual and forcible sodomy for allegedly having sex with several men; indecent acts for allegedly posing for nude photographs; aggravated assault for not informing an alleged victim of his HIV status; and conduct unbecoming an officer....
An HIV-positive Catholic Navy chaplain pleaded guilty Thursday to a dozen counts of charges involving sexual misconduct with Marines and Naval Academy midshipmen.
The chaplain, Lt. Cmdr. John Thomas Matthew Lee, 42, manipulated midshipmen and a Marine corporal into having sex with him, he told Col. Steven Day, the military judge presiding over the general court-martial at Quantico, Va....
Can we bring back Keel Hauling?
This person who had a leadership role on three levels (superior officer, Counselor, and spiritual leader) should get 3X the sentence.
I hope they max him out on the sentence.
he got 12 years but the plea bargain reduced it to only 2.
2 years??? and Dr. Ronan gets 4 years?? how exactly does that work, no comparison in my book?
Quote:
This person who had a leadership role on three levels (superior officer, Counselor, and spiritual leader) should get 3X the sentence.
I hope they max him out on the sentence.
exactly,
The level of betrayal on so many levels that this chaplain is apparently guilty of goes well beyond what can exacted as punishment from any judicial system.
There are few places on this earth where a person in need or in despair can and should be able to find sanctuary and perhaps a moment of peace outside their church; whatever denomination they may be. For him to use that sanctuary to prey on young men goes beyond words. I don't know much about this case, but the logic around his sentence escapes me. Perhaps the judge felt his medical condition is already part of his punishment, I don't know. I'm not a fan of the "eye for an eye" approach to justice, I really don't believe in capital punishment based on what the last 20 years of DNA evidence has taught us about the failures and shortcomings of our judicial system, but for this guy.....I don't think you could possibly apply too long a sentence.
Like xchefmike and others, I am particularly offended that the chaplain in his role as a superior officer, counselor, and spiritual leader, exploited young midshipmen/marines who were seeking help and comfort. Would repeal of the "Don't ask; don't tell" policy prevent something like this from happening in the future?
Gay mids went to him for counseling and often they're threatened by other mids to be 'outed,' so they must be pretty stressed about that. Did the "Don't ask; don't tell" policy contribute to the pathological behavior of two gay officers, Ronan and now this priest? I don't know, just asking the question.
A Catholic Navy chaplain who admitted forcing himself on a gay Naval Academy midshipman sent to him for counseling and having sex with an Air Force officer without disclosing he was HIV-positive was sentenced today to serve two years in a military prison.
Lt. Cmdr. John Thomas Lee, 42, of Burke, Va., accepted a plea deal with Marine Corps prosecutors that suspended 10 years of a 12-year sentence, dismissed him from the Navy and required him to forfeit all future pay and benefits....
