Cmdr. Keith Willis, Commanding Officer of Coast Guard cutter dies on board Tahoma

PORTSMOUTH, Va. – The body of the commanding officer of a Kittery, Maine, based U.S. Coast Guard cutter was located in the officer’s cabin on board the ship around 10 a.m. Sunday while in homeport.

Cmdr. Keith Willis, 44, a native of Frisco, N.C., assumed command of the 270-foot medium endurance cutter Tahoma in May 2007.

Willis most recently served as the Coast Guard liaison officer to Commander, U.S. Navy Second Fleet, after having served as the assistant Coast Guard liaison officer at U.S. Fleet Forces Command and Joint Forces Command from August 2004 through August 2006.  Willis graduated from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn., in 1989 with a Bachelor of Science in Government.

“We are deeply saddened by the news about the loss of our shipmate,” said Vice Adm. Robert J. Papp, Jr., the commander of the Coast Guard’s Atlantic Area command in Portsmouth, Va.  “Our focus right now is on supporting the family, helping Tahoma’s crew, and working with the appropriate officials to determine what happened.”

Members of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and the Coast Guard Investigative Service are currently on board Tahoma.

The cause of death is unknown at this time.

The Tahoma is a 270-foot medium endurance cutter homeported at the U.S. Naval Shipyard Portsmouth in Kittery, and was most recently deployed off the New England coast where it conducted various law enforcement and marine safety missions until returning to port Jan. 28

Coastie Gets 20 years for sexually abusing 10 year old in 2004

Crime Watch Contributor

from the Juneau Empire

A retired Coast Guard veteran was sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting a 12-year-old boy at a Juneau church camp spring 2004 and then paying $300 to keep the child from reporting the crime.

Ketchikan resident Darren Jacksch, 42, also was convicted for sexually abusing a 10-year-old child in his home in 2004, while still in the Coast Guard.

Read the rest of the story here.

Sex, Crime and the Coast Guard Recruit in 2007

from the Cape May County Herald

CAPE MAY — In what might well be an unprecedented opening to the public here May 1 at the Cape May Coast Guard Training Center of military criminal proceedings involving subject matter of the most sensitive kind, Gunner’s Mate 1st Class Wilson Medina faced his accuser, “J.M.,” a seaman assigned to Station Cape May and former recruit under his company command, in an open hearing on criminal charges he had non-consensual sex with him while the two were at Medina’s home Nov. 10-11, 2007.

J.M. had graduated from basic training, but only recently arrived for his first Coast Guard assignment at Small Boat Station Cape May when the incident is alleged to have occurred.

Medina, married with three children, is accused of touching J.M.’s penis and performing fellatio on him in two incidents on the same night at Medina’s home, after Medina and J.M. spent the evening with Medina’s wife and children watching a boxing match, and drinking beer and vodka.

Read more at the Herald.com

Coast Guard not alone in sex crimes, Navy Master Chief charged in 2007

Former Command Master Chief Edward Scott

The former top enlisted man at Naval Base Kitsap was charged Tuesday with second-degree attempted rape and communication with a minor for immoral purposes in Kitsap County Superior Court.

Edward E. Scott, 43, is accused of arranging a meeting for sex Friday with a woman he thought was a mother — actually an undercover agent — and her supposed 12-year-old twins, according to Bremerton police detectives.

Read more here.