Navy chaplain sentenced to 2 years in prison at court martial
12/06/2007
By MATTHEW BARAKAT / Associated Press
An HIV-positive Navy chaplain was sentenced to two years in prison Thursday after admitting that he forced himself on a Naval Academy midshipman and had sex with an Air Force officer without disclosing his HIV status. He wa was defended my attorney Dave Sheldon.
Lt. Cmdr. John Thomas Lee, 42, of Burke, Va., was sentenced after reaching a plea agreement with prosecutors at a court-martial at Quantico Marine Corps Base, south of Washington.
Lee, a Roman Catholic priest, was assigned to the U.S. Naval Academy from 2003 to 2006 and later to Quantico.
As part of the plea agreement, he admitted that he learned of his HIV status in 2005. In December 2006, he had sex with an Air Force lieutenant colonel, and lied to the victim about his HIV status when asked.
The forcible sodomy with the midshipman occurred in the fall of 2004, when the midshipman was in his junior year. The midshipman, who was not identified, testified in the trial’s sentencing phase that he allowed Lee to perform oral sex on him because he was intimidated by Lee’s status as a chaplain.
“This was a priest. This was a guy who knew all of my darkest secrets,” the victim, now a Navy ensign, said on the witness stand. He had previously received counseling from Lee.
Marine spokesman Maj. Tim Keefe said after Thursday’s hearing that nobody is known to have actually contracted HIV from Lee.
In addition to sodomy, Lee was charged with conduct unbecoming a military officer, aggravated assault and indecent assault and fraternization.
Lee was ordained as a priest in 1993 and began serving as a military chaplain in 1996, said Julia Rota, a spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of the Military Services, which oversees Catholic priests in the military. His faculties to function as a priest were revoked in June, after an accuser came forward, Rota said.
Lee was commissioned as an officer in 1988, according to military records. He served at the Naval Academy from September 2003 until October 2006, and later was reassigned to Quantico. He was relieved of his duties in June.
His previous assignments include Camp Pendleton in California, Pearl Harbor and Italy
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