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Roger B. Handberg
U.S. Attorney, Middle District of Florida
U.S. Attorney Roger Handberg is a central figure in the Midshipman-X criminal case, the most infamous maritime sex crime in American history. On March 16, 2023 CNN’s Erin Burnett aired a bombshell investigative report that touched on Roger Handberg’s failure to take any action in the Midshipman-X case, and the U.S. Department of Justice’s total failure over the course of more than 30 years to criminally prosecute even a single maritime sex crime investigated by the U.S. Coast Guard.
As of June 2023, Roger B. Handberg serves as the United States Attorney for the Middle District of Florida. He was appointed to the position of interim U.S. Attorney by Attorney General Merrick B. Garland in December 2021. Handberg was later nominated by President Joe Biden and then confirmed by the Senate on December 7, 2022.
The Midshipman-X case began on September 28, 2021 when 21 year old Hope Hicks, then known only as Midshipman-X, published a bombshell whistleblower account of being raped at sea aboard the M/V Fairfax Alliance while serving as cadet during her Sea Year at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy. Hicks was only 19 years old when she alleges she was raped at sea.
Following the publication of Hicks’ story on the MLAA website, the U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service launched a criminal investigation. On February 2, 2022 the Coast Guard Investigative Service made a criminal referral of the Midshipman-X case to the U.S. Department of Justice, via the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida pursuant to 18 USC 3238—“Offenses Not Committed in Any District.”
As CNN reported on March 16, 2023, “Around four months after Hicks went public with her rape allegation [February 2, 2022], the Coast Guard completed its criminal investigation…Coast Guard agents had boarded the ship, taken pictures and measurements of the room where the alleged assault occurred and sought to interview potential witnesses. They sent their findings to prosecutors at the Department of Justice [Roger Handberg’s MDFL] to determine if criminal charges should be filed, according to government correspondence reviewed by CNN.”
On March 16, 2023 CNN also reported that the accused rapist was mariner Edgar Sison. Sison resided in the Middle District of Florida, which is why the case was referred to Roger Handberg’s U.S. Attorney’s Office in the MDFL.
CNN also reported on a disturbing meeting Hicks had with Attorneys from Handberg’s office in June of 2022. According to CNN, “Shortly after graduating, Hicks and her attorney 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,” she said. “This industry is not safe…”
By June of 2023, more than 16 months after the CGIS referred their completed criminal investigation to Roger Handberg, he had still not made a prosecutorial decision on whether or not to prosecute Sison.
Through his long and intentional delays, Handberg has also prevented the U.S. Coast Guard from bringing Suspension & Revocation charges against Sison’s merchant mariner license for the sexual assault of Hicks.
As MLAA has reported, Handberg’s delays have allowed Sison to continue working on ships, and numerous women have found themselves trapped aboard ships with Sison during that time period, completely unaware that Sison was under criminal investigation for raping a woman aboard a vessel only a few years earlier.
When CNN asked Roger Handberg for a comment on the delay in taking action against Sison, he declined to comment. As CNN reported on March 16, 2023, “The Coast Guard has acknowledged to Congress that sex crimes at sea are an underreported problem. The agency told CNN that in the past 10 years, it opened 25 criminal investigations into alleged shipboard sexual assault, some of which remain ongoing. It couldn’t point, however, to a successful sex crime prosecution of a credentialed mariner in the last 30 years, and the Justice Department declined to comment.”
U.S. Attorney Roger Handberg has the final decision-making authority on whether to 1) Prosecute Sison, or 2) Decline to Prosecute Sison.
The victim and an entire industry continue waiting for his decision.
Links to stories and documents about Roger Handberg: