Rape Accusation Roils Naval Academy

In a conversation taped by an investigator, standout Navy quarterback Lamar S. Owens Jr. tearfully apologized to the fellow midshipman he is accused of raping after admitting he had sex with her in her Naval Academy dorm room.

On the tape, played by prosecutors at a hearing Wednesday to determine whether there was enough evidence for a court-martial, Owens was emotional and apologized often, at one point saying: “I’m so sorry. I woke up the next day and I called you and I wanted to kill myself, and I still feel like that.”

His accuser, a sophomore and varsity athlete at the academy who testified in sometimes graphic language at the hearing held at the Washington Navy Yard, confronted him various times during the phone conversation, which took place Feb. 8 and lasted about 10 minutes.

She asked him what she should tell her parents, her brother and her little sister. Owens could be heard crying on the tape, and then said: “I could never expect you to forgive me.”

The charges against Owens have rocked the military college as it struggles to correct what a Pentagon task force last year termed a hostile atmosphere for women on the campus in Annapolis, Md.

In addition to Owens, two other athletes have been investigated in the last several weeks for sex crimes, one for rape and another for a consensual encounter against academy rules, and a professor faces a court-martial for using inappropriate language.

Owens’ lawyer says his client is not guilty and zeroed in at the hearing on how much his alleged victim might have been coached in the taped conversation, both by a Naval Criminal Investigative Service agent and a Navy advocate assigned to the accuser.

Lawyers at the proceeding also asked her about her drinking that night -- she acknowledged being drunk -- and whether it could have been possible that she gave Owens her consent and didn’t remember.

“I suppose,” she said, but later countered: “I wouldn’t define it as consent if I can’t remember it happening.”

The pretrial investigation will probably conclude today. The investigating officer can recommend a court-martial, administrative punishment or no action to the academy’s superintendent, Vice Adm. Rodney P. Rempt. The superintendent will then decide what action to take.