BROOKLYN, NY: Jury selection began Monday, July 13, in United States v. Merrone in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. The New York Post reported that opening statements were scheduled for Wednesday, July 15.
U.S. District Judge Ramon E. Reyes Jr. is presiding over the trial, which is expected to last approximately two weeks. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kayla Bensing and Rachel Bennek are prosecuting the case.
Merrone has pleaded not guilty and is presumed innocent unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
The Charges
Federal prosecutors allege that on September 9, 2019, Merrone, then captain of the Liberty Glory, a U.S.-flagged cargo ship sailing from Bahrain to Corpus Christi, Texas, invited two female USMMA cadets to his stateroom and served them drinks from an already-opened bottle. Prosecutors say one cadet later awoke in her room partially clothed, with only fragmented memories of the night. The government alleges Merrone drugged and sexually assaulted her.
Merrone faces five federal counts, including aggravated sexual abuse, sexual abuse of a person incapable of consent, and three counts of abusive sexual contact. He could receive up to 30 years in prison if convicted on the most serious count.
Seven Years From Ship to Courtroom
The prosecution follows years of survivor advocacy, investigative reporting, and scrutiny of the institutions responsible for protecting cadets and mariners at sea.
Maritime attorney Ryan Melogy, founder of MLAA and of the law firm Justice4Mariners, and himself a USMMA graduate and former licensed Chief Mate, has been involved in the Merrone matter for years, representing multiple women who made allegations involving Merrone. Melogy maintained public pressure after U.S. Coast Guard Suspension & Revocation prosecutors and then federal criminal prosecutors initially declined to bring charges. His work, and the persistence of the women he represents, helped lay the groundwork for what is now a historic federal prosecution.
When the indictment was announced in June 2025, Melogy told journalists:
“My client endured a horrific betrayal while serving her country at sea and still found the strength to graduate and earn her license.”
He also said the criminal case concerns more than the conduct alleged against one captain:
“This case is about more than one captain: it's about a broken system consisting of U.S. government agencies, maritime labor unions, and commercial shipping companies that have worked cooperatively for decades to protect known sexual predators and silence their victims.”
In May 2024, more than a year before the indictment, Melogy delivered a talk to the Maritime Law Association’s Marine Pollution and Maritime Crimes Committee in New York titled “Not One Word: How and Why the U.S. Department of Justice Is Hiding from Maritime Sex Crimes,” examining the DOJ's decades-long failure to prosecute sexual violence at sea.
Justice4Mariners maintains a detailed public timeline of the Merrone case and a separate case page containing charging documents and related coverage.
Why This Trial Matters
Whatever the verdict, the Merrone trial is a test of whether the federal government will use criminal law to protect mariners and cadets at sea. For decades, sexual violence aboard U.S. commercial vessels has been handled, when it was handled at all, through fragmented systems involving vessel operators, maritime academies, labor unions, the Coast Guard, and federal prosecutors: administrative license proceedings, quiet departures, and settlements. The Safer Seas Act, signed in December 2022, was built in part on the failures this case exposed.
A jury in Brooklyn will now hear the evidence the public was never meant to see.
Merrone is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law. MLAA will continue monitoring the proceedings and will update this report as testimony and court rulings become part of the public record. MLAA's reporting on this case is based on public court records, government documents, and published news accounts.
