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First Posted: 9/5/2013 (AP) A midshipman accusing three former U.S. Naval Academy football players of sexually assaulting her at an off-campus toga party has asked in a federal lawsuit for the school's superintendent to remove himself from deciding whether the men will be court-martialed, her attorney said Thursday.
The suit filed in Maryland seeks a court order directing Vice Adm. Michael Miller to recuse himself, Attorney Susan Burke said. It says that as the head of the school, Miller is likely to be biased and that he did nothing to prevent lengthy and abusive testimony during a military court hearing on the accusations.
The woman spent five days testifying during the proceeding, known as an Article 32 hearing. She has said she drank heavily and has no memory of having sex with the midshipmen, but became concerned after hearing gossip shortly after the party that she had had sex with multiple people.
The hearing that spanned the Labor Day weekend lasted a week and days were long. The 21-year-old senior midshipman faced long and tough cross-examination that included questions about whether she wore underwear the night of the party. She also was asked about how much a woman needed to open her mouth to perform oral sex.
The woman said on three different days she was too tired to continue testifying. Testimony scheduled for Saturday ended up being postponed when the woman said she couldn't continue after having testified for four days under cross-examination by three defense teams.
"The trial days were running well past the capacity of the witness," Burke said at a news conference announcing the lawsuit.
The Associated Press generally doesn't name those who authorities say were victims of sexual assault. The suit refers to the woman as Jane Doe.
The lawsuit stated: "The superintendent, acting from afar and without ever setting foot in the courtroom, intentionally subverted the judicial process in order to punish Midshipman Doe for daring to blow the whistle publicly on wrongdoing by Naval Academy football players and the subsequent coverup. He acted from bias because his own career interests in being perceived as a strong leader of the academy were at stake."
The academy said it would release a statement later on the lawsuit.
The weeklong hearing wrapped up Tuesday night. The investigative officer who presided over the case is expected to review the evidence and make a recommendation to Miller on whether the men should be court-martialed. Such reviews generally take days or weeks to complete.
Midshipman Eric Graham, 21, is charged with abusive sexual contact, while Midshipmen Tra'ves Bush, 22, and Josh Tate, 21, are charged with aggravated sexual assault. All three also are charged with making a false statement.
"The superintendent ordered Midshipman Doe to endure an abusive schedule of cross-examination lasting in excess of 30 hours, in which defense counsel's questions went well beyond the scope of her direct, and well exceeded any relevant discovery. Such a lengthy cross- examination, standing alone, would be troubling even if conducted on non-emotional topics and in reasonable increments with the witness afforded the needed opportunity to rest between sessions," the suit states.
The cross-examination took place after the woman testified about her limited recollections of the night in April 2012 at a house in Annapolis, where Navy football players held a crowded party with men dressed in togas and women dressed in yoga pants. She has testified she has no memory of having sex with anyone that night and that she had a previous sexual relationship with Bush.
She has testified that she awoke at the house the next morning with a sore back. She also said she had consensual sex with a different football player that morning at the house, while there were two other people in the room.
The case has drawn attention as the White House, Congress and the Pentagon have been focusing on the issue of sexual assault after a string of cases in the military this year. President Barack Obama highlighted the importance of the issue at the Naval Academy's graduation ceremony in May.
<a title="Associated Press" href="http://www.ap.org" class="url org fn">Associated Press</a>

Lawsuit filed in Naval Academy sex assault case