A former U.S. Navy chief who lost his anchors in 2019 after pleading guilty to patronizing prostitutes in Bahrain was found not guilty of stateside rape charges at a court-martial Tuesday, Navy officials have confirmed.

A panel of enlisted members found Logistics Specialist Seaman Recruit Calvin Halfacre not guilty of rape, attempted rape, robbery and assault with intent to commit rape charges, according to Navy spokesman Brock Vergakis.

The charges were connected to an alleged incident involving a woman that took place in Virginia Beach on Feb. 3, 2019, according to Halfacre’s charge sheet.

His civilian attorney, Phil Cave, declined comment on the trial but said Halfacre wants to “get back to taking care of his family and finding work to support himself and his children.”

The charges for which Halfacre was acquitted involved alleged events that transpired around the same time that then-Chief Halfacre was pleading guilty to patronizing prostitutes in Bahrain, one of several sex-crimes cases the Navy prosecuted out of U.S. 5th Fleet in recent years.

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The three Thai women Halfacre paid for sex in Bahrain back in 2017 initially accused him of sexual assault, but those charges were later dropped as part of his plea deal.

After pleading guilty as part of that agreement with Navy prosecutors, Halfacre was sentenced in March 2019 to 30 months in the brig, a rank reduction to E-1, a bad-conduct discharge and forfeiture of all pay and allowances while in confinement.

He was released from the Navy brig in Chesapeake, Virginia, on Wednesday, after serving the required portion of his prior sentence, Cave said.

Once he was acquitted on the recent charges, “he had to be released,” Cave said in an email Friday.

Cave is currently appealing Halfacre’s Bahrain-related sentence to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces after a Navy-Marine Corps appeals court upheld the Bahrain sentence last year.

“Because his appeal is still pending, they will send him home on unpaid appellate leave pending the resolution of his appeal,” Cave said.

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Geoff is the editor of Navy Times, but he still loves writing stories. He covered Iraq and Afghanistan extensively and was a reporter at the Chicago Tribune. He welcomes any and all kinds of tips at geoffz@militarytimes.com.

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