CNN Identifies Mariner Accused of Brutally Raping Midshipman-X Aboard the M/V Alliance Fairfax. His Name is Edgar Sison.

CNN-Identified Accused Rapist Edgar Sison of the M.E.B.A. Maritime Labor Union as the Man Who Attacked Hope Hicks

New York, NY

By: MLAA

CNN has published the name of the mariner accused of raping Midshipman-X, an infamous maritime sex crime that has set off what is now being called the #MaritimeMeToo Movement.

According to CNN, the accused rapist’s name is Edgar Sison—a member of the Marine Engineers Beneficial Association (MEBA) maritime labor union.

Sison’s name was published by CNN on March 16, 2023 in “Failed oversight, lax punishments: How the Coast Guard has allowed sexual assault at sea to go unchecked,” a bombshell expose on the total and intentional failure of the U.S. Coast Guard, over decades, to address the plague of sexual abuse in the U.S. maritime industry.

At the center of CNN’s story is Hope Hicks (aka Midshipman-X) and her quest for justice against the man who brutally raped her aboard the M/V Allance Fairfax when she was a 19 year-old engine cadet and he was a senior engineering officer in his 60’s.

Sison’s name was first published by John Konrad of gCaptain on October 7, 2022, but Sison’s name did not reached widespread recognition within the maritime industry until publication by CNN more than 6 months later.

Hicks wrote about her attack, the aftermath, and the broader problem of maritime sexual harassment and assault facing her fellow U.S. Merchant Marine Academy students in her now famous blog post, “I Was a 19-Year-Old Virgin When I Was Raped by a 60+ Year-Old 1st Engineer Aboard a Maersk Ship During Sea Year. I Know Several Other Current USMMA Students Who Were Also Raped During Sea Year.”

However, she did not name Sison in her blog post and has never publicly stated his name.

In its March 16, 2023 story, CNN wrote the following regarding their decision to name Sison (and to publish his photograph):

HOPE HICKS IDENTIFIES HER ALLEGED ASSAILANT

Hope Hicks described her alleged rape in an interview with CNN and in a lawsuit filed against the ship’s operator Maersk, which identifies her assailant as the First Engineer. Employment records obtained by CNN identify Edgar Sison as the ship’s First Engineer, and Hicks identified her assailant as Sison to reporters. Sison did not respond to numerous requests for comment. His attorney declined to comment.

According to CNN, the operator of the M/V Alliance Fairfax was “shipping giant Maersk’s US subsidiary,” which “zeroed in” on Edgar Sison following the publication of Hicks’ blog post in September of 2021 “and fired him when he refused to participate in an internal investigation.”

According to CNN, shortly after she graduated from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in June of 2022, Hicks and her attorney Ryan Melogy “met with Justice Department and Coast Guard officials to get an update on the case, but they received no real answers. What she did glean from the meeting left her furious: a Coast Guard agent revealed that even though Maersk had fired Sison, another shipping company had picked him up.”

“They didn’t seem outraged by that or seem to think that presented a danger to other women who might find themselves on a ship with him. It makes me sick that this process is so broken,” Hicks told CNN, adding “This industry is not safe, and the Coast Guard must do more.”

Sison’s union, the Marine Engineers Beneficial Association (MEBA), told CNN that “despite knowing he had been fired for failing to cooperate in Maersk’s internal investigation into an alleged rape, labor laws have kept the union from temporarily suspending Sison’s membership without any information or action from the Coast Guard.”

According to CNN, “The Department of Justice, meanwhile, still hasn’t announced a decision about whether to file charges, and the Coast Guard hasn’t taken any disciplinary action against Sison. The agency did, however, renew his credential last year.”

On March 22, 2023, CNN published a follow story about Sison, “The Coast Guard renewed a mariner’s ability to work at sea after he was accused of rape. Now, the agency is trying to keep him off ships.”

In the March 22, 2023 story CNN wrote: “More than a year after a student told the US Coast Guard she was plied with alcohol and raped by her boss while training at sea, the agency is going after her alleged assailant’s ability to work on commercial ships. Coast Guard officials filed administrative charges against mariner Edgar Sison for alleged alcohol violations stemming from the rape accusations on Friday, a day after CNN reported that the agency had not taken any disciplinary measures against Sison – and had even renewed his government-issued credential. The complaint, which the Coast Guard said seeks to suspend Sison’s credential for one year, comes as officials await a decision from the Department of Justice on possible criminal charges related to the alleged rape.”