Former DDG XO gets a year for assault - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

Former DDG XO gets a year for assault

The former executive officer of a Mayport, Fla.-based destroyer was sentenced during a general court-martial Thursday to a year in military confinement and given a punitive letter of reprimand, the Navy announced Friday.

Lt. Cmdr. Charles Perry, who was assigned to the destroyer Roosevelt, was convicted in Mayport by a panel of fellow officers on charges of wrongful sexual contact, assault consummated by battery and conduct unbecoming an officer, said Lt. Cmdr. Bill Urban, spokesman for Naval Surface Force Atlantic in Norfolk, Va.

The panel did not recommend dismissal for Perry, who has 28 years’ service, Urban said. Perry’s retirement grade and the characterization of any future dismissal will be determined by Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, Urban said.

The victims included both enlisted members and officers, he said. Urban did not identify the victims’ ranks or positions, citing privacy concerns.

There were three specifications of assault and battery. The Navy said Perry grabbed the buttocks of one victim on the ship on multiple occasions between October 2009 and September 2010; pulled down the shorts of another aboard ship “on or about” April 2010; and touched the genital area of another in the Jacksonville area in the June 2010 timeframe.

The panel convicted Perry on three counts of wrongful sexual contact, all for incidents cited in the assault and battery charges.

Perry also was found guilty of two counts of conduct unbecoming an officer and gentleman: in one, for grabbing a victim’s buttocks, making sexually offensive comments and kissing the victim on multiple occasions between October 2009 and September 2010; in the other, for what appears to have been the latter assault charge.

He pleaded not guilty to all charges in April. Perry was to be confined immediately, Urban said.

Perry had been removed from the ship in October, pending the completion of a preliminary inquiry and subsequent Naval Criminal Investigative Service investigation into allegations that he sexually harassed subordinate members of Roosevelt’s crew, Urban said. He was replaced by Cmdr. Robert Thompson, who has since become the ship’s commanding officer.

Roosevelt deployed in March as an independent deployer supporting maritime security operations in the U.S. 6th Fleet area of responsibility, Urban said.