The court-martial of former Navy quarterback Lamar S. Owens Jr. on a rape charge elicited a show of support for the midshipman by prominent alumni -- some of whom helped the football star procure a top-flight legal defense team -- despite the highly public campaign against sexual misconduct being waged by the academy's superintendent.
Vice Adm. Rodney P. Rempt, the academy's superintendent, has made no secret of his desire to transform a campus culture that critics, and Pentagon studies, say is hostile toward women. His handling of the Owens case was unusually public and aggressive.
Despite the institution's emphasis on chain of command and respect for military authority, several alumni responded to the admiral's initiative with an equally aggressive, behind-the-scenes defense of the former football star accused of rape by a female midshipman.
John E. Sheehan, a 1952 graduate and former chairman of the Naval Academy Alumni Association, said this week that he pushed Owens to seek out John Nolan, a senior partner at the law firm of Steptoe & Johnson in Washington.
Nolan, a 1950 graduate, is the general counsel of the Naval Academy Foundation.
"The superintendent is the one who should be on trial," Sheehan said Tuesday outside the courtroom, as the Owens defense got under way. "Lamar Owens is innocent, and he will be acquitted."
Nolan brought in his colleague, Reid Weingarten, who has represented corporate executives in headline-making white-collar criminal cases, including those involving Enron, WorldCom, Tyco International and HealthSouth. Weingarten said in an interview that he became involved in the case at the urging of Nolan, who he said is a "sweet man" whom he greatly respects.
"He chatted with me one day because he thought there might be an injustice in this case," Weingarten said of Nolan.
Nolan met Owens' family -- his father is a meter reader for a Georgia power company and his mother a prenatal nurse in the former football player's native Savannah -- and asked Weingarten to meet Owens.
"I have an unusual arrangement with my firm in that I can take whatever cases I want," Weingarten said. "I'm an independent agent of my firm. So I met with Lamar, and after one hour, I knew I wanted to help him."
Nolan, who often sat in the courtroom and chatted with Owens' family, declined to comment except to say he was pleased with Owens' acquittal on the rape charge. (Owens was convicted of two lesser offenses.)
