On the night of Saturday, April 13, 2019, at the United States Coast Guard Academy’s Chase Hall dormitory in New London, CT, USCG Cadet Kieran Clancy homosexually assaulted an Academy classmate, Joshua Roh. Following the assault, Cadet Roh was taken by two fellow cadets to the Academy’s medical clinic and, later the hospital, where he was treated, monitored and released the following day. Roh then filed a sexual assault report with the Academy’s sexual assault response coordinator.
Two Coast Guard Investigative Service (CGIS) special agents interviewed Cadet Roh on April 19, but it took weeks before a military protective order (MPO) was issued against the then alleged perpetrator. In fact, this was the second MPO issued against Cadet Clancy; he previously assaulted a female cadet - an assault that was treated by Academy leadership as a minor disciplinary infraction. In the meatime, Clancy remained in the classes he shared with Roh and later was assigned with Roh to summer cadre, the group of upperclassmen who help instruct incoming 4th class students. After Cadet Clancy left a note outside another cadet's door that was "written in his blood", he was finally charged with abusive sexual contact related to the April 13 incident.
Disgraced Rear Admiral William Kelly USCG Academy Class of 1987
Academy Cadet “Rewarded” for Sexual Assault and Battery
At a non-judicial punishment (NJP) hearing on November 10, 2020, Academy Superintendent RADM William Kelly, USCG found Clancy had committed “assault consummated by battery” a UCMJ Punitive Article 128 violation, and referred the case to court martial. However, incredibly, RADM Kelly then permitted Cadet Clancy, to have his case adjudicated through non-judicial punishment and, as part of a “plea bargain” in which he admitted to “assault consummated by a battery” and simply agreed to resign his USCG Academy appointment.
In contrast, an enlisted Coastguardsman convicted by court martial of a UCMJ Punitive Article 128 violation typically would receive a prison sentence of from eight to 10 years, a Dishonorable Discharge with the complete loss of Veterans’ benefits, and the loss of any military pension and further pay.
However, via a non-judicial punishment hearing, Cadet Clancy received an Under-Honorable Conditions Discharge, an administrative discharge usually given to service members who have engaged in minor misconduct, retaining nearly all Veterans’ benefits other than the GI Bill. His extremely lenient “sentence” suspended actual punishment but required him to leave the Coast Guard. He then transferred to another university, retaining all of his Coast Guard Academy academic credits (acquired at no cost to him); and has access to free VA healthcare and other benefits (e.g. a low interest unsecured home loan, civil service employment preference, etc.) for the rest of his life; and will be eligible for burial at a national veterans’ cemetery with full military honors on his demise.
Coda: Following a year-long search, on July 1st, 2023, RADM Kelly, who had retired earlier in the year, began an undefined term as the sixth President of Christopher Newport University. The Search Committee - comprised of faculty, staff, alumni, students, and community leaders - organized by the 14 members of the university’s Board of Visitors’ - didn’t fully research RADM Kelly’s tenure at the Coast Guard Academy, or the Coast Guard Academy’s “corrosive pattern” of sexual and physical assault. It is possible that the university’s Board of Visitors believe sexual assaults on college campuses should be normalized, as they have been at the Coast Guard Academy (and the greater Coast Guard) since the early 1980’s, but that’s doubtful.
Note: Cadet Clancy’s and Roh’s names were previously made public by the USCG Academy and the Roh family, respectively.