US Navy Doctor Kevin Ronan Found Guilty of Making Secret Sex Tapes
The Navy doctor who was accused of secretly videotaping Naval Academy midshipmen engaged in sexual acts found guilty. He was using a hidden camera in an air purifier to tape the male midshipmen having sex with girlfriends or masturbating while they stayed in guest bedrooms at his home in Annapolis, Maryland. They were there as part of an academy program that places students in private homes during their free time. The Navy doctor was using this device since May 2006, according to the Prosecutors.
Ronan, 41, stood at attention and showed no visible reaction as the verdict was read at the Washington Navy Yard.Ronan testified this week that he bought the device to make sure the students didn’t throw parties while he wasn’t home. He said he tested it once, but later used it only to clean the air in the spare bedrooms, not for taping.
The two men who found the recordings in January and turned them over to authorities was midshipman,and the other a former student.
During the trial, Ronan lawyer William Ferris alleged that the men who claimed to have found the tapes actually made them in a plot to extort money. Ferris detailed the checkered records of both, saying the former midshipman was expelled from the academy for poor grades and later tried to forge his official transcript.
The same military jury is now slated to consider a sentence ranging from no formal punishment to more than 27 years in the brig. Ronan also faces dismissal from the Navy.
According to Cmdr. Kevin Ronan father, Frank Ronan, “he was sick, devastated and blown away” by the verdict. “We did not expect this,” he said.
Ronan is a pediatrician assigned to the Navy’s Bureau of Medicine and Surgery in Washington. From 2002 to 2006, he ran a clinic at the Naval Academy in Annapolis and was a doctor for several Navy sports teams.
