U.S. Coast Guard Moves to Revoke License of Captain Charged with Sexual Assault Aboard USNS Carson City
The federal agency has filed formal charges against Captain Yamil Sanchez Padilla—the Military Sealift Command captain accused of sexually assaulting 1st Assistant Engineer Elsie E. Dominguez while she was incapacitated in her stateroom.
March 8, 2026
By: Maritime Legal Aid
More than four years after Elsie Dominguez says she woke up to find the captain of her ship sexually assaulting her in her stateroom aboard the USNS Carson City, the United States Coast Guard is taking formal action to strip the captain accused of that assault of his merchant mariner’s credential.
According to documents obtained by Maritime Legal Aid, the Coast Guard filed an administrative complaint against Captain Yamil Sanchez Padilla on February 21, 2025, citing violations of 46 U.S.C. § 7704a(b). The statute is a new federal law passed as part of the Safer Seas Act that mandates revocation of a merchant mariner credential upon an official finding of sexual assault.
The Coast Guard’s complaint was filed through the Coast Guard’s Suspension and Revocation (S&R) process, which is the federal mechanism for suspending or permanently revoking a merchant mariner’s credential. The proceedings are administrative, not criminal, and jail time is not on the table. Captain Sanchez Padilla has denied the charges against him.
What the Coast Guard Alleges
The government’s complaint lays out the facts in stark terms. On the evening of December 18, 2021, Sanchez Padilla, a civilian mariner employed by the U.S. Navy who was then serving as Master of the USNS Carson City, observed that Dominguez, the ship’s 1st Assistant Engineer, was severely intoxicated while ashore in Brindisi, Italy. She had vomited and had to be helped back to the vessel by fellow crew members.
In the early morning hours of December 19, 2021, according to the Coast Guard’s allegations, Captain Sanchez Padilla returned to the ship, entered Dominguez’s stateroom, and engaged in a sexual act with her. The complaint alleges that Dominguez was physically incapable of declining participation or communicating unwillingness. The Coast Guard characterizes Sanchez’ conduct as sexual abuse under 18 U.S.C. § 2242(2)(B) and sexual assault under 46 U.S.C. § 2101(45).
The complaint states that Sanchez Padilla is the subject of an official finding of sexual assault by a Coast Guard Investigation as defined in 46 U.S.C. § 7704a(c)(1)(B) in violation of 46 U.S.C. § 7704a(b), the legal predicate that triggers mandatory credential revocation proceedings.
Elsie Dominguez
Dominguez is a 2014 graduate of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and was employed as a CIVMAR by Military Sealift Command at the time of the assault. She had achieved the rank of 1st Assistant Engineer, and prior to her alleged assault held the ambition of becoming the first female Chief Engineer in Military Sealift Command.
“I've been asked many times what justice looks like for me,” Dominguez said. “I want a jury to hear what he did. I want him behind bars. Before that night, I had a career I loved and a goal I was chasing — I wanted to be the first female Chief Engineer in Military Sealift Command. He walked into my stateroom while I was unconscious and he took that and so much more from me.”
In November 2023, Dominguez filed suit against the United States Navy in federal court in New Jersey, publicly identifying herself and her assailant and demanding accountability for the Navy’s failure to protect her. The lawsuit alleged that the captain gained access to her stateroom using his master key code while she was unconscious, and that security cameras in the ship’s passageways had been inoperable for over a year. The lawsuit alleged that after she reported the assault to the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS), Military Sealift Command shielded the captain, continued to employ him, and discouraged her from pursuing medical testing or confidential reporting.
Dominguez is represented in the criminal investigation and Coast Guard administrative proceedings by attorney Ryan Melogy of Justice4Mariners, a maritime personal injury and abuse law firm. Melogy, himself a graduate of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and a U.S. Coast Guard licensed ship captain, has been at the forefront of maritime sexual assault accountability cases, becoming well known for being the lawyer behind the groundbreaking Midshipman-X case, and playing a key role in the passage of the Safer Seas Act.
“The Coast Guard’s decision to move forward with revocation proceedings is an important step, and reflects progress by the Coast Guard,” Melogy said. “This is exactly the kind of accountability the Safer Seas Act was designed to produce.”
But Melogy also said he was disappointed the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) declined to bring criminal charges.
“Myself and other people who looked at the evidence thought this case was a good candidate for criminal prosecution, but ultimately the DOJ disagreed. I do appreciate that the DOJ communicated clearly with us.”
Melogy says that he and Dominguez met twice with attorneys from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Human Rights & Special Prosecutions Section (HSRP) in Washington, D.C. The DOJ’s HSRP investigates and prosecutes violent crimes, human trafficking, war crimes, and other offenses falling under the Special Maritime and Territorial Jurisdiction of the United States. According to Melogy, DOJ prosecutors formally notified Dominguez of their decision to close the criminal case without a prosecution and subsequently referred the case to the Coast Guard and U.S. Navy for administrative remedies.
A Historic First
According to attorney Ryan Melogy, who has independently investigated the Coast Guard’s Suspension & Revocation program for years, historically Military Sealift Command employees who faced administrative or criminal investigations of shipboard sexual misconduct subsequently faced zero risk of administrative action against their U.S. Coast Guard merchant mariner credentials. That is, according to Melogy, because MSC, the Navy, and NCIS did not refer sexual misconduct allegations involving CIVMARs to Coast Guard S&R investigators—the only body with authority to revoke a mariner’s credential. The result was a system in which the most consequential professional sanction available was effectively off the table.
“For decades MSC and NCIS were sitting on these allegations against federal mariners and never passing the allegations or investigations on to U.S. Coast Guard investigators,” Melogy said. “That meant the U.S. Navy controlled MSC sexual misconduct investigations with no independent oversight. Sanchez Padilla may be the first Military Sealift Command officer ever charged with sexual misconduct by the Coast Guard, but he certainly should not have been the first. My question is whether the Coast Guard will now investigate older cases at MSC that have fallen through the cracks, or allow those mariners to escape scrutiny of their suitability to hold a merchant mariner’s credential.”
The Road Ahead
The Coast Guard's proposed revocation must be confirmed through the hearing process where Captain Sanchez Padilla has the right to contest the charges and present evidence. But if the presiding Coast Guard Administrative Law Judge finds by a preponderance of the evidence that the assault occurred, revocation of the mariner's license is mandatory and the judge has no discretion to impose a lesser sanction. Even if the charges are found proven by the Coast Guard’s Administrative Law Judge, Sanchez Padilla has the right to appeal any adverse ruling: first to the Commandant of the Coast Guard, then to the National Transportation Safety Board, and ultimately through the federal courts.
The current status of the Coast Guard’s case against Sanchez Padilla is unknown. Maritime Legal Aid has made repeated requests to the Coast Guard's Administrative Law Judge Docketing Center for the case file, but the agency has refused to release records that, as administrative adjudicatory proceedings, are public records under federal law (33 C.F.R. § 20.903).
For Elsie Dominguez, the Coast Guard action is not the end of the fight. The federal civil lawsuit against the Navy remains pending, and the broader battle to ensure that Military Sealift Command can never again quietly absorb allegations of sexual assault without outside accountability is ongoing.
"The Department of Justice closed my criminal case, and I will never fully understand that decision,” Dominguez says. “The Coast Guard moving to revoke his license is progress, and I am grateful for it, but a license revocation is not the full accountability this crime deserves. At least his name is finally out there, years after mine was made public.”