Coast Guard cadet acquitted of rape, convicted on other counts
6/27/2006NEW LONDON, Conn. A Coast Guard Academy cadet was acquitted of rape today in the first court-martial of a student in the school s 130-year history.
But the military jury convicted Webster M. Smith of several other charges, including indecent assault, extortion, sodomy, failure to obey an order and absent without leave.
The most serious charge against Smith, 23, of Houston, had been the rape allegation. He was accused of raping his on-again, off-again girlfriend after a night of heavy drinking last summer in Annapolis, Md. He testified that the sex was consensual.
Read more in later editions of The Blade and toledoblade.com.