-- Talk to the chaplain.
The words have long been a mantra for those in distress. Butprosecutors say the authority the phrase suggests allowed Navy Lt.Cmdr. John Thomas Matthew Lee to prey on vulnerable lower-rankingmale troops, some of whom he exposed to HIV.
"His selfishness was so strong he was willing to destroy thelives of others to make himself happy," Maj. Derek Brostek, theprosecutor, said yesterday, as Lee pleaded guilty at a court-martial to forcible sodomy, aggravated assault and other crimes andwas sentenced to 12 years of confinement, all but two of themsuspended.
Since 2004, Lee has used his position as a Catholic priest andhis rank to obtain sexual gratification from at least threeservicemen, according to the findings of the Marine Corpsinvestigation outlined yesterday during the court-martial.
In 2004, at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, a midshipmanstruggling with academic and personal problems sought counsel fromLee. The two had dinner one night, and Lee invited the 20-year-oldto his apartment. As they drank scotch and beer on the balcony, Leebegan masturbating, the young man testified.
The young man, now an ensign, said he attempted to ignore it,until Lee initiated a sex act on him.
"I said I didn't want it," the ensign said. Lee continued, theensign testified, telling him: "It's all right, it's all right."
The ensign said he didn't report the incident partly because hefeared Lee's word might trump his. "After the event happened, I feltguilty," he said. "I thought that I must have done something wrongthat led up to that."
The encounter was the basis of the forcible sodomy count, themost serious of the charges. No physical force was alleged, but theact was considered forcible because of Lee's superior rank.
The Washington Post generally does not identify victims of sexualassault.
Lee learned in April 2005 that he had HIV, he said in court.
The aggravated assault charge stems from an encounter between Leeand a U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel last December. Lee saidyesterday that he found the man on the Internet site craigslist,which has a section where men can post queries and photos ofthemselves to solicit sexual encounters.
The lieutenant colonel asked Lee, 42, whether he had any healthproblems before they had sex, Lee said.
"I said everything was okay," Lee said, indicating that heneglected to tell the man he had HIV, fearing that the man wouldlose interest. They used a condom, Lee said.
None of the men involved has tested positive for HIV, said Lee'scivilian attorney, David P. Sheldon. But military officialsrequested as part of the plea agreement that Lee disclose the namesand contact information of all the men he has had sex with sincetesting positive for the virus. The names will be shared with healthauthorities, who will notify the men about their exposure, Sheldonsaid. Lee said he would provide information about "all encounters Iremember."
Officials began looking into Lee's behavior in June after aformer Marine corporal reported concerns about the chaplain. Theformer corporal said yesterday that he went to Lee for advice whenhe was in the process of leaving the Marines. He said Lee asked himone day while the two were in the chaplain's office whether theyoung man would take pictures of Lee in various states of undress.Lee said he wanted the pictures so he could send them to a woman hehad been corresponding with over the Internet, the former corporalsaid.
The corporal said he reluctantly agreed because he "felt trapped"and because "my judgment was clouded."
During a later encounter, Lee reportedly asked the Marine totouch his bare leg. The Marine said he put his finger on thepriest's thigh but yanked it away when Lee tried to get him to domore.
Prosecutors said Lee also victimized an ensign he had persuadedto enroll in the Naval Academy. Lee met the ensign when the youngman lived with his parents in Silver Spring. The two had sex onmultiple occasions, prosecutors said, and the ensign at one pointlived at Lee's apartment in Burke. That ensign and the Air Forceofficial who had consensual sex with Lee remain in the armed forces,said Maj. Tim Keefe, a Marine Corps spokesman. Keefe said he knew ofno enlisted men being dismissed as part of the investigation intoLee's conduct.
Lee e-mailed photographs of himself having sex with soldiers andother men to friends and service members, attorneys on both sidessaid. He sent some of these images from his military e-mail accountand stored pornographic images on his computer at work.
In one photo obtained by the Post, Lee is sitting nude on a sofain his office flanked by an image of the Virgin Mary and a framedphoto of Gen. Peter Pace, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs ofStaff. Pace came under fire during the end of his two-year term aschairman for comments he made about homosexuality and the military's"don't ask, don't tell" policy, equating homosexual acts to adulteryand calling them immoral.
Lee was ordained as a priest in 1993 and served as associatepastor at St. Jerome parish in Hyattsville for three years. Hebecame a commissioned officer in November 1988. He was most recentlystationed at the Marine Corps Base in Quantico. Past postingsinclude the Naval Academy from September 2003 until October 2006;the Sixth Fleet of the U.S. Naval Forces Europe, in Gaeta, Italy,between April 2001 and September 2003; and aboard the USS PortRoyal, between December 1998 and March 2001.
The Archdiocese of Washington and the Archdiocese for theMilitary Services removed his credentials in June after Lee toldchurch officials that he was the target of a sexual misconductinvestigation, said Susan Gibbs, a spokeswoman for the WashingtonArchdiocese.
Lee said yesterday that he was "deeply sorry" for his actions.After the hearing, Lee, wearing a blue Navy uniform with a crossstitched on one of the sleeves, took tiny steps with his shackledlegs as he was guided toward a green van. He covered his face andhandcuffed hands with a green jacket.
The case comes amid a string of sexual misconduct allegations atthe Naval Academy. Last month, a Navy physician was sentenced tofour years in prison for using a hidden camera at his home to tapemidshipmen having sex.
Staff writers Josh White and Michelle Boorstein and staffresearcher Meg Smith contributed to this report.
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