Plea Deal Expected In Military Sex Case
Chaplain Accused Of Abusing Power
By Josh White and Michelle Boorstein | Thursday, December 6, 2007
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.
