John Merrone pleaded guilty in federal court in Brooklyn on Wednesday, admitting that he drugged and raped a 21-year-old U.S. Merchant Marine Academy cadet during a 2019 voyage on a cargo ship bound for Corpus Christi, Texas.
The plea came just as the trial was about to begin. U.S. District Court Judge Ramon Reyes had already spent two days selecting a jury, and jurors were sworn in on Tuesday before being sent home Wednesday morning after Merrone withdrew his not guilty plea and admitted all five counts of aggravated sexual abuse, sexual abuse and abusive sexual contact.
The cadet, identified in court as Jane Doe, sat crying in the audience as the hearing unfolded. When it was over, she turned to her attorney, Ryan Melogy, and said, “It’s over.” For her, the plea ended a case that had shadowed her for years. For the government, it closed a major criminal case at the last possible moment.
That resolution also clarified the stakes. Federal prosecutor Kayla Bensing said the U.S. Attorney’s Office will recommend a sentence of 15 to 20 years in prison, though the final number will be set by Reyes when Merrone is sentenced on Dec. 22. The five counts he admitted cover the full range of the assault charges in the case, but they do not settle what the judge will decide within that sentencing range.
The plea did not erase the wider record around Merrone. Prosecutors said at least five other women have come forward to accuse him of sexual assault or drugging them, and one earlier account from another U.S. Merchant Marine Academy cadet described being drugged on Sept. 9, 1999, during the school’s sea year, the 12-month maritime program in which students work aboard ships to gain practical experience. Rachel Bennek said Merrone messaged that cadet and another woman on Facebook before their voyage on the Liberty Glory, then invited them to his stateroom for a soda a week before the end of the sea year.
For now, the case moves from trial to sentencing. What remains open is not whether Merrone admitted the crimes in this prosecution — he did — but how much prison time Reyes will impose when he returns to court in December.
