By Kate Wiltrout
The Virginian-Pilot
May 30, 2009
http://hamptonroads.com/2009/05/rape-case-against-navy-chaplain-wraps
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| Chaplain Shane Dillman he pleaded guilty to fraternization, adultery and unbecoming conduct, stemming from relationships with two other junior enlisted women. |
Abuse of position, abuse of trust, vulnerable women and sex - those are the themes of the case against a Navy chaplain accused of rape, the lead prosecutor said Friday in closing arguments.
Prosecutor Lt. Michael Marinello spent 50 minutes wrapping up the four-day case, which alleges that Lt. Shane Dillman raped a sailor while both were assigned to the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson. The Pentecostal chaplain is also charged with making a threat and multiple counts of fraternization - the military term for forbidden, overly friendly relationships between officers and enlisted sailors.
Capt. Moira Modzelewski, a military judge, will rule on the charges Monday, then preside over sentencing.
Dillman, 37, pleaded not guilty to the rape and threat charges. On Tuesday, he pleaded guilty to other charges, including fraternization, adultery and unbecoming conduct, stemming from relationships with two other junior enlisted women.
Conviction on those charges could bring up to nine years in jail; the rape charge carries a potential life sentence.
Marinello said Dillman clearly flouted fraternization regulations by telling the women who came to him for counseling to use his first name, asking them details about their romantic lives, telling them they were beautiful, and giving them money and jewelry.
Two witnesses described trips out of the Newport News shipyard with the chaplain, sometimes in his yellow Mustang, for meals and errands.
Charles W. Gittins, Dillman's lawyer, argued that the chaplain was just helping those in need.
"His job is to connect to people, to minister to their needs," Gittins said in his closing statement. "He took on the role of a big brother, or a good friend, and there's nothing wrong with that."
Gittins said that Dillman spent the entire day of the alleged rape in October 2007 at home in Williamsburg with his family and two guests. Four witnesses - including his wife and son - said Dillman was there the entire day.
Moments after Gittins insisted the prosecution's timeline of events that morning didn't fit, he acknowledged that the chaplain might indeed have spent time that day with the woman, an enlisted sailor recently out of boot camp, who is accusing him.
Gittins noted the woman, who testified for almost six hours Wednesday, went willingly into the bedroom at Dillman's Newport News apartment and agreed to a massage. When Dillman pulled down her shorts, she didn't say "stop," Gittins said.
"She said, 'What are you doing?' " he noted, quoting from her testimony. He said she first used the word "stop" after Dillman began intercourse.
"She changed her mind after penetration," Gittins said. "That's not rape. That's post-coital remorse."
In his rebuttal, Marinello argued the woman made it clear she didn't want to have sex. Lying next to Dillman on the bed, she said she was uncomfortable; Dillman told her to relax. When he kissed her, she told him she didn't want this; when he pulled down her pants, she protested.
Afterward, Gittins said, Dillman told the woman, "I thought that's what you wanted" - proof, he argued, that Dillman thought she had consented.
Marinello asserted otherwise. "That's Lt. Dillman's first attempt at damage control," he told the judge. Dillman said it after coaxing her out of the bathroom, where she had locked the door after jumping off the bed.
Much of the evidence presented involved cell phone records. The woman's and Dillman's phones showed multiple calls and text messages to each another on the day in question.
The prosecution said the calls corroborated her story - one to say he was leaving, another to say he was about to arrive, a third after the couple was separated for a short time at the Langley Air Force Base gym later that morning. There were no calls, Marinello noted, while the pair was reportedly in Dillman's apartment.
That same Saturday morning, when witnesses claimed Dillman was home, making pancakes and drinking coffee with his guests, 24 calls were made among the Dillman family and their guests.
That included three calls, seven minutes long or more, between Dillman and Willie S. Williams, his mentor and guest. There were several calls between Dillman and his wife, as well as multiple calls between their cell phones and home phone.
Williams said the Dillmans' 3,200-square-foot home was so large that they sometimes called one another while inside to communicate. But he also said that cell phone service was so bad on the property that he would drive to the top of a nearby hill for reception.
Marinello said those explanations didn't make sense. The pattern of calls indicated everyone was not together, as the defense claimed, he said.
Dillman is an Oklahoma native whose ministerial credentials were sponsored by the Coalition of Spirit-filled Churches, based in Newport News. They were revoked after he was charged, and he has been on administrative duty since last summer.
Dillman won an award in 2007 from a military chaplains coalition and, while stationed at Bethesda Naval Medical Center, was chosen to escort President George W. Bush on tours of the hospital.
Dillman chose to forgo a jury trial and have the judge determine his guilt or innocence.
The judge's sentence is subject to approval by the admiral serving as convening authority in the case.
Kate Wiltrout, (757) 446-2629, kate.wiltrout@pilotonline.com
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