The recent sexual assault trial, and conviction, of a naval academy midshipman was reported in numerous news outlets. As far as I can tell, none of them include a photo of the (now convicted) perpetrator, Nixon Keago.
The New York Daily News is typical of these articles, reporting:
Naval Academy midshipman found guilty of sexually assaulting female classmates
A Naval Academy midshipman accused of breaking into female classmates’ bedrooms, assaulting them while they were asleep and then convincing them to lying about it was found guilty on almost all counts Wednesday.
Midshipman Third Class Nixon Keago was found guilty Wednesday of two counts of sexual assault, attempted sexual assault, burglary and obstruction of justice stemming from three attacks in 2018 and 2019, the Capital Gazette reported.
“He took advantage of vulnerabilities when he took control over them while they were asleep,” Lt. Cmdr. Paul LaPlante said during closing arguments.
Keago, 24, accosted the first female midshipman, who was drunk and asleep in her bed, in February 2018, then another in October 2018. In May 2019, he tried with a third.
The Capital Gazette also leaves out any photo, or description, of the perpetrator.
We get more information from Military.com:
The other social movement hovering over the trial is Black Lives Matter.
The movement was established in 2013 after George Zimmerman was acquitted in the death of Florida teen Trayvon Martin. It recently captured renewed national attention after police officers killed George Floyd, prompting weeks of protests against police brutality.
Keago is Black.
During a pretrial hearing last week, both the government and defense attorneys asked for questions of race and bias on the supplemental questionnaire.
The defense, Lt. Dan Phipps and Lt. Cmdr. Andrea Kissner, had concerns about questions on the Black Lives Matter movement on the questionnaire, including if a person would be concerned if a guilty conviction in this case would be detrimental to Black Lives Matter.
Phipps and Kissner also wanted open-ended questions about racial bias. Judge Capt. Aaron Rugh said a question on the questionnaire asking is if the potential member believed Black men committed sexual assault more than white men would be sufficient.
In the end, it doesn’t look like race came up in the trial, but the fact that jurors could be potentially excluded for answering “yes” to the question “Do black men commit sexual assault more than white men?” is disturbing.
What would be the reaction if an attorney suggested that jurors should be excluded if they believed that “Men commit sexual assault more than women?” That attorney would be laughed out of court.
Based on 2016 FBI statistics, blacks represent 29.1% of rape arrests, compared to 67.6% for whites and Hispanics combined. At 13% of the population, this means that blacks are over twice as likely to be arrested for rape as one would expect from their numbers.
Now that you know this, you might be disqualified from jury duty. Congratulations!
It’s not clear to me where this took place. When I was in, you couldn’t even close the door to a room when in mixed company. How did he get access to their sleeping quarters?
According to the articles, his victims were drunk. So they might have left their doors open.