Coast Guard complaint accuses captain of sexually harassing USMMA cadet, Baldwin woman
The U.S. Coast Guard has filed a pair of complaints against a shipping captain, alleging he sexually harassed and sent inappropriate messages to a cadet from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point in 2017 and to a Baldwin woman who was working as chief cook of another vessel in 2021, records show.
The USMMA complaint, which was filed last month, seeks the suspension and revocation of Capt. Joseph McCann's license and merchant mariner credentials. J. Ryan Melogy, a maritime employment attorney, said he believed the complaint regarding the USMMA cadet is the first by the Coast Guard under the Safer Seas Act, which became law in late December making sexual harassment grounds for suspension and revocation.
The other complaint, which also seeks to suspend and revoke McCann's license and credentials, alleges he sexually harassed the civilian cook, who publicly identified herself as Ashley Codrington of Baldwin, between Feb. 11, 2021, and April 30, 2021, on a Maersk vessel.
That complaint states that McCann "made unwelcome sexual advances toward the chief cook by sending inappropriate text messages and making comments expressing a desire for a sexual relationship with her, which created an intimidating and hostile work environment."
WHAT TO KNOW
- The United States Coast Guard is seeking to suspend and revoke the license and merchant mariner credentials of Capt. Joseph McCann for allegedly sexually harassing and sending inappropriate text messages to two women, one from Long Island and the other a graduate of the United States Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point.
- One Coast Guard complaint alleges McCann harassed a Baldwin woman, who was serving at the time as the civilian chief cook on a shipping vessel that was sailing in Oman in 2021.
- The other complaint contends McCann sexually harassed a cadet from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point in 2017 while she was on her Sea Year assignment and he was the vessel’s chief mate.
In an interview Monday, Codrington, who owns a vegan cafe in Baldwin, said the texts, which never escalated to physical contact, made her worry for her safety. They included messages asking Codrington to take a picture of herself after getting out of the shower and another suggesting he would pour whipped cream on her, she said.
Eventually, Codrington said, McCann suggested that he would come to her room at night. When she declined McCann's advances, rumors circulated that she had slept with the captain, Codrington said.
"It's super uncomfortable," Codrington said, adding that she was often scared to go to the gym or a crew lounge. "I'm trapped on this ship and I can't really like get away. The vessel is big, but it's not that big. It creates an environment that's not healthy to work in."
After reporting the sexual harassment to Maersk, Codrington left the vessel in Singapore and returned to Long Island. She recently settled a civil suit with Maersk.
McCann's Coast Guard hearing on Codrington's allegation is set for next month.
Brian McEwing, McCann's New Jersey-based attorney, declined to comment.
In a filing seeking the complaint's dismissal, McEwing said his client denied the allegations and that Codrington was a "willing participant" in the texting exchanges and was the aggressor at times, using "sexually explicit language" in her communications.
While preparing for Codrington's hearing, Coast Guard prosecutors said they received information that McCann, while chief mate of a Crowley Maritime vessel in 2017, sexually harassed an unnamed USMMA cadet who was on her Sea Year assignment, where midshipmen are required to complete more than 300 days of work on commercial vessels in international waters, according to hearing records.
The Coast Guard said it interviewed witnesses aboard the vessel who confirmed the allegations, records state.
Last month, the Coast Guard filed a complaint alleging that between July 22, 2017, and Aug. 12, 2017, McCann sent "inappropriate text messages to the deck cadet via social media expressing an unwelcome desire for an intimate relationship. [McCann's] actions were an intentional or repeated unwelcome verbal comment or gesture of a sexual nature toward the deck cadet when [McCann] was the deck cadet's supervisor."
McCann's behavior, the Coast Guard alleges, "created an intimidating, hostile or offensive work environment." The complaint charges McCann with official misconduct and a violation of the Safer Seas Act.
A Crowley spokesman told Newsday they terminated McCann based on the allegations. But McCann found work shortly thereafter at Maersk, the nation's largest shipping company.
"This shows how the system works," said Melogy, Codrington's Manhattan-based attorney. "Even when somebody gets fired, they just move to the next ship. And then the guy gets promoted from chief mate to captain and now he's doing the same thing … It really shows a broken system where these offenders are able to just simply move around from company to company, even after getting fired."
The Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration, which oversees the USMMA, did not respond to requests for comment.
The Merchant Marine Academy, one of the nation's five federal service academies and the first to admit women, has been the subject of multiple complaints of sexual abuse and harassment dating back nearly a decade.
Cadets at the USMMA reported 26 incidents of alleged sexual assault in the past four academic years and 35 allegations of sexual or gender-based harassment, stalking or relationship violence, according to a university report released last month.
Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.
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