Court Martial Attorney – Attorney: Navy tried to get alderman to confess
Says investigators recorded a telephone call between the alleged victim and Alderman
Sam Shropshire
By The Muckraker Staff
An attorney for the Annapolis alderman accused of fondling a midshipman earlier this month said Navy officials vied for a confession before turning the case over to civilian police.
But Alderman Sam Shropshire denied the allegations in a phone call from the victim that Naval investigators probably recorded, said Gill Cochran, the city councilman’s attorney.
“They often do this stuff,” Cochran said. “They use this technique in the Navy quite often.”
Bill Klein, a spokesman with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, wouldn’t comment on the alleged recording, citing the continuing investigation.
“NCIS, as a matter of general principle, does not comment on its ongoing investigations,” he wrote in an e-mail message.
Shropshire was charged last week with touching the crotch of a 21-year-old midshipman during a car ride May 14. The 61-year-old city councilman denied the charges of fourth-degree sex offense and second-degree assault, both misdemeanors. (see related story).
Shropshire was driving the midshipman home from an evening at local bars about 11:15 p.m. when he reached over and “touched and manipulated (the midshipman’s) genitals for 30 seconds,” Annapolis police allege in court documents.
They stopped at a traffic light at Rowe Boulevard and Taylor Avenue, and the midshipman got out of the car, according to court documents.
But Cochran said that’s not how it happened. Shropshire drove the midshipman back to the Academy grounds, where he entered through gate three at Maryland Avenue, Cochran said.
“There is a lot more going on in this case,” Cochran said.
Naval Academy officials couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
Navy investigators turned the case over to Annapolis police, who filed charges May 19.
The Navy is notorious for trying to trick people into confessing, Cochran said. Investigators did it in the case of former Navy football quarterback Lamar Owens, who was cleared of raping a female midshipman in 2006.
During his court martial, prosecutors played an 18-minute tape of a conversation he had with his alleged victim recorded by Navy investigators.
But the jury found him guilty of lesser offenses, and Owens was thrown out of the Navy and forced to repay more than $91,000 in tuition.
Michael Waddington is a court martial lawyer – court martial attorney that defends military personnel worldwide as well as deployed civilian contractors subject to the UCMJ. He defends Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine, Coast Guard, and civilian contractor court martial cases. He has successfully defended military personnel as a court martial lawyer Army Navy Marine & Air Force court martials in Germany, England, San Diego, Norfolk, Jacksonville, Fort Bragg, Fort Jackson, Fort Stewart, Fort Gordon, Italy, Iraq, Kuwait, Korea, Okinawa, Japan, Yokota, and throughout the United States. military-defense-lawyer-recentcases.htm.
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