Naval Academy midshipman Kenny Morrison has been charged with raping two classmates after giving them a date-rape drug, his defense attorney said Tuesday.
The rape charges involve two different women and two separate evenings, one in February and the other in April, William Ferris said.
Morrison was scheduled to begin a special court-marital on Tuesday for charges of sexual misconduct stemming from a Feb. 4 incident in Washington. The Naval Academy announced on Monday it was dropping those charges.
“Additional information affecting the case involving allegations of sexual assault against a First Class Midshipman has recently become available and is under active investigation” said Naval Academy spokesman Cmdr. Ed Austin in a statement released to the media.
Ferris said he was officially informed by Navy prosecutors that the misconduct charges would be dropped at about 2 p.m. Monday. At 6 p.m., they told him Morrison would be charged with two counts of rape, he said.
Morrison was originally charged with sexual misconduct after he was accused of pressuring a fellow midshipman to “engage in multiple acts of intercourse” with him in the presence of another midshipman, according to the charging documents.
In a pretrial hearing for the case earlier this month, a military judge ruled that evidence the woman was given a date-rape drug near the time of the alleged assault could not be used during the trial. Marine Lt. Col. Paul McConnell ruled the GHB found in a toxicology report could not be linked to Morrison.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
