HONOLULU — A nurse was sentenced to two years in prison Monday for sexually abusing a Coast Guard crew member docked at a Marshall Islands atoll.
Dennis Henry received the sentence in federal court in Honolulu as part of a plea agreement, Justice Department spokesman Elliot Enoki said.
In exchange for the plea, prosecutors dropped an aggravated sexual abuse of a drugged victim charge. If convicted of that charge, he would have faced up to life in prison.
The Coast Guard crewmember was part of a crew of the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Sequoia docked at Kwajalein Atoll. The man, identified in court documents as G.C., was enjoying a day off in March 2012, drinking at least eight beers and two shots of hard liquor. At about 11 p.m., he met Henry while drunk and staggering out of a bar, court documents said, and the two men went to Henry’s quarters.
The man said he woke up dazed and in pain. A sex assault kit was examined at an FBI laboratory, and a test found the prescription sleep aid Ambien in his blood. Lab results estimated the victim’s blood-alcohol level at the time of the assault was approximately 0.30 percent, nearly four times the legal limit for driving.
Henry admitted he had sex with the man, who was “incapable of appraising the nature of the conduct,” the plea agreement states.
