2nd submariner guilty of sharing videos of women in shower
May 27, 2015, 2:13 PM
MAYPORT NAVAL STATION, Fla. (AP) — A second submariner pleaded guilty Wednesday to sharing videos of female officers undressing for a shower, continuing a case that a prosecutor calls a “black eye” for the Navy’s integration of women into the nation’s sub fleet.
Electronics technician Joseph Bradley entered his guilty pleas in a court-martial trial and was sentenced to 30 days’ confinement and a reduction in rank.
Bradley received the videos after they were secretly recorded by another sailor aboard the USS Wyoming nuclear submarine based at Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base in Georgia, prosecutors say.
Bradley admitted in a plea agreement to sharing the images with other sailors.
“This is a betrayal of trust and a violation of that brotherhood and that sisterhood of submariners,” Navy prosecuting attorney Lt. Cmdr. Lee Marsh said.
“This accused furthered what has become a black eye to the Navy.”
On Tuesday, missile technician Charles Greaves received two years in prison and a dishonorable discharge for making the videos. Greaves worked with lookouts on the sub who notified him when the female officers were done working out and were headed to the showers, prosecutors say. Greaves covered his cellphone in tape and stuck it between a gap in pipes that had a view of the sub’s shower area.
The case has been a blight on the Navy’s integration of women into the submarine force, which it started in 2011.
The women officers videotaped were among the first wave to serve on nuclear submarines. They all said they felt proud to be trailblazers and honored to qualify as submariners, a grueling task that requires mastery of the ship’s complicated systems.
Now, the four women officers say the videos have ruined or derailed their careers.
On Wednesday, three of the officers testified about how devastating it has been. They said knowing the videos were shared among the male sailors they led as officers eroded their abilities to do their jobs.
“After this happened, I lost the trust of everybody,” one woman said. “I couldn’t look anyone in the eye and know if they had seen me.”
Others said the incident has left them paranoid about using restrooms at the gym or in public.
Five more male sailors face charges in the case. The next related court-martial is scheduled on Friday at Kings Bay, and will be a closed proceeding.
Bradley received a more lenient sentence because he was the sailor who ultimately provided the illicit videos to Navy criminal investigators.
Bradley faced the women in the courtroom and offered an apology. The women stared back at him as he spoke, stone-faced.
“I don’t expect you to accept my apology, but I needed to tell you guys,” he said.
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