A Naval Academy student testified Thursday that a fellow midshipman forced her to have sex three times over several hours in a Washington hotel last year.
The woman told jurors at Kenny Ray Morrison’s court-martial that she tried to resist Morrison but that he carried her to a bed, removed her clothes and had sex with her during the night of Feb. 3, 2006, and early the next morning.
“I continued to say, ’No, you can’t do this,”’ the woman, now a senior at the Annapolis military school, told the seven Marine and Navy officers during the first day of testimony at the Washington Navy Yard.
Morrison’s attorney, William Ferris, said during opening statements that the former backup football linebacker will testify later that the sex was consensual.
The woman is one of two female midshipman that prosecutors say Morrison had sex with against their wishes on different occasions last year. The Associated Press does not identify alleged sexual assault victims.
Morrison, 24, of Kingwood, Texas, was charged with indecent assault and conduct unbecoming an officer in each case. He was scheduled to graduate last spring, but remains a midshipman while his legal case continues.
‘Date rape’ drug charges dropped
He originally faced more serious charges of raping the women with the aid of “date rape” drugs, but those counts were dropped after questions arose over the accuracy of tests that Navy prosecutors used to prove the women were drugged.
Morrison is the second midshipman to face court-martial for sexual assault in the past year. Former star football quarterback Lamar Owens Jr. was cleared of rape last year but convicted of lesser charges. Academy Superintendent Vice Adm. Rodney Rempt has recommended that Owens be dismissed without graduating, a proposal under review by the secretary of the Navy.
On Thursday, the woman testified that she’d had nine drinks the night she claimed she was assaulted, starting at an Annapolis restaurant and later at a Washington nightclub. She began to feel ill and went back to a nearby hotel where midshipmen were staying in several rooms. The woman fell asleep, but awoke to find Morrison standing over her, asking her to have sex with him. She kissed him, but said she didn’t want to have sex.
“I said, ’No, I can’t,”’ the woman recalled, but Morrison persisted and moved her to another bed because another midshipman was sleeping next to her. She said Morrison removed her tampon, then had sex with her three times over the next several hours.
The second woman, now a Marine officer, testified in a pretrial hearing that Morrison gave her a beer at an Annapolis bar the night of April 21. She said her next memory was waking up next to Morrison, naked.
Prosecutors said Thursday that there was evidence that Morrison had sex with her that night, but Ferris said Morrison will testify that the woman “invited sexual activity.”