Topic: Jury Deliberates Case Of Navy Doctor

Washington Times
November 9, 2007
Pg. B3
By Stephen Manning, Associated Press
A jury yesterday began deliberations in the court-martial of a Navy doctor accused of using a hidden camera to videotape Naval Academy students engaged in sexual acts.
Navy prosecutors and attorneys presented closing arguments yesterday on the seven counts of conduct unbecoming an officer, three counts of illegal wiretapping and one count of obstruction of justice against Cmdr. Kevin Ronan.
Cmdr. Ronan is accused of using a camera hidden in an air purifier to tape male midshipmen having sex with girlfriends or masturbating while they stayed in guest bedrooms at his Annapolis home. They were there as part of an academy program that places students in private homes during their free time.
Cmdr. Ronan testified this week that he bought the device to make sure the students didn't throw parties while he wasn't home. He said he tested it once, but later used it only to clean the air in the spare bedrooms, not for taping.
Navy prosecutor Lt. Cmdr. Peter Clemow said Cmdr. Ronan began using the device for surreptitious taping as early as May 2006. Two men — one a midshipman, the other a former student — found the recordings in January and turned them over to authorities.
"This was an environment based on trust," Cmdr. Clemow told the jury of six Navy captains. "In May of 2006, Commander Ronan violated that trust."
Cmdr. Ronan, 41, works in the Navy's Bureau of Medicine and Surgery in the District. He spent four years running the military health center at the Naval Academy in Annapolis before transferring in 2006. He was also a team doctor, working with the gymnastic, lacrosse and soccer teams.
His attorney, William Ferris, said the tapes were made by the two men who said they found them in Cmdr. Ronan's home as a plot to extort money. He highlighted the checkered records of both, including the former midshipman, who was expelled from the academy for poor grades and later tried to forge his official transcript.
In his closing argument, Mr. Ferris also emphasized that nothing directly proves Cmdr. Ronan made the recordings, only circumstantial evidence. He asked why the charges against Cmdr. Ronan include making tapes that prosecutors never produced.
"This case is being Scotch-taped together. It is a house of cards," he said.
Cmdr. Clemow said there are too many elements that Cmdr. Ronan couldn't explain. That included his handwriting on a videodisc containing some of the recordings and the presence of his voice on one of the videos, showing he was home during the tapings.
Cmdr. Clemow said Cmdr. Ronan also did not tell the truth about the presence of hundreds of homosexual pornographic images on his home computer. Prosecutors said the photos demonstrate a habit of sexual voyeurism and a motive to tape the male midshipmen during sex acts.
"If it looks like Commander Ronan is doing this, it is because Commander Ronan is doing this. Any other theory is preposterous," Cmdr. Clemow said.