November 16, 1998, Monday

NATIONAL DESK

SOVEREIGN ISLANDS: A special report.; On Cruise Ships, Silence Shrouds Crimes

By DOUGLAS FRANTZ ( Special Report ) 3355 words

A Texas woman on a Caribbean cruise with her husband accused a waiter of drugging their dinner drinks and later raping her in their cabin.

An Oregon family on a cruise said their daughter was raped by a ship's bartender after she celebrated her 16th birthday in a bar.

A California woman said that a crewman forced his way into her cabin and beat and raped her.

As with many rape cases, none of these was clearcut. Some involved alcohol and counterclaims of consensual sex. One wasn't reported until after the cruise. Yet in every case, the accusers say, the cruise line's main concern was to protect its reputation by buying or coercing their silence and shielding the accused.

Once the exclusive playground of the very wealthy, the cruise business has expanded over the last decade by appealing to the vast middle class, especially families and young adults. The polished mahogany decks and formal dinners of a bygone era have been replaced by glittering floating cities dedicated to carefree partying, gambling and drinking.

But as the industry has boomed to more than five million passengers a year, it has presented new concerns for its ports of call, its passengers and the environment, in part because of the size of its giant liners, in part because the cruise lines operate largely outside the laws of any one country. A particular problem is the allegations of sexual assaults committed by crew members.

There is no evidence that crime is rampant aboard cruise ships. The Federal Bureau of Investigation does not break out statistics on rapes on the high seas. But F.B.I. agents in Miami, the country's busiest cruise port, said they are called to investigate a shipboard sexual assault about every other week. An examination of sexual assault cases on ships operated by the largest cruise lines, based on court records and interviews with current and former employees, law-enforcement officials, and passengers who reported assaults and their lawyers, found a pattern of coverups that often began as soon as the crime was reported at sea, in international waters where the only police are the ship's security officers.

Accused crew members are sometimes put ashore at the next port, with airfare to their home country. Industry lawyers are flown to the ship to question the accusers; and aboard ships flowing with liquor, counterclaims of consensual sex are common. The cruise lines aggressively contest lawsuits and insist on secrecy as a condition of settling.

When the Texas couple sued, the cruise line settled with a confidential agreement. Cruise line lawyers subpoenaed the Oregon girl's school records to question her character, but eventually settled a suit. Officers aboard the California woman's ship did notify the F.B.I., at her insistence, but she said the arrival of the agents was delayed until her room had been cleaned. In another case, a Federal grand jury is investigating whether Carnival Cruise Lines, the world's largest, helped a ship's officer accused of rape get out of the country. And in 1995, a Florida appeals court found that Carnival dismissed a crew member for refusing to lie to protect the company in a civil suit brought by another seaman.

''You don't notify the F.B.I.,'' said Charles C. Harris, a former chief of security for Carnival. ''You don't notify anybody. You start giving the victims bribes, upgrading their cabins, giving them champagne and trying to ease them off the ship until the legal department can take over.

''Even when I knew there was a crime, I was supposed to go in there and do everything in the world to get Carnival to look innocent.''

The cruise lines say that crimes are uncommon and that they do a good job of investigating when one does occur. But three years ago their lobbyists tried in Congress to win protection from most damages in sexual-assault suits and from all suits by foreign crew members.

Difficulties Arise
Issues of Jurisdiction, Reporting of Crimes
In many ways these ships, as long as three football fields, are not so much floating cities as sovereign islands, operating beyond the police and regulatory jurisdiction of the nations they cruise among.

Every major cruise ship sailing out of American ports is registered with a foreign country, usually Panama or Liberia. The corporations that own them are foreign, too. The foreign registry means the ships and their owners avoid American corporate income taxes and many American laws, though more than 80 percent of their passengers are American.

Carnival Corporation, the parent of Carnival Cruise Lines, has its headquarters in Miami but is a publicly held corporation registered in Panama. Controlling interest is held by the family of its founder, Ted Arison, a billionaire who renounced his American citizenship in 1993 in part to avoid estate taxes. His son, Micky, an American citizen, is chairman. Most of Carnival's executives are American.

The other leading line, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., also has its headquarters in Miami, but the corporation is registered in Liberia. Controlling interests are owned by a Bahamian partnership associated with the wealthy Pritzker family of Chicago and by a shipping company owned by a Norwegian family, the Wilhelmsens.

Lynn Martenstein, vice president for communications at Royal Caribbean, said the company would not comment on cruise ship crime or respond to any specific questions because of legal considerations.

A vice president of Carnival, Tim Gallagher, said his company reacts promptly and thoroughly any time there is an accusation of sexual misconduct involving passengers or crew members. He said only a handful of assaults occur each year, though he declined to provide numbers.

''We have more than 1.5 million guests a year and it is impossible that there would not be a huge public outcry if there were any kind of serious crime problem,'' he said.

The F.B.I. has jurisdiction to investigate crimes in international waters on foreign ships if the vessel departed from or is headed to an American port and the crime involves an American citizen. But investigating a crime scene at sea is difficult, agents routinely wait until a ship returns to port, and jurisdictional questions often arise, law-enforcement authorities said.

And not all crimes are reported. Cruise ships are required to report only crimes and other incidents that result in serious physical injury, which does not necessarily include rape. ''Unless otherwise required to do so, Carnival leaves it to the individual to decide whether to report to authorities,'' said Curtis J. Mase, a lawyer for Carnival.

Complaints are frequent enough, however, that Lloyd A. Lipkey, the agent in charge of the F.B.I.'s Miami squad that deals with crimes on the high seas, offered a warning to passengers: ''Go on a cruise just like you go anywhere else, with your eyes open.''

The Culture
Aboard Ship, Rules Bar Fraternizing
Today's huge cruise ships carry 1,800 to 2,200 passengers and 700 to 800 crew members drawn from 50 or more countries, many of them poor nations. While some crew members are highly trained, particularly the officers, many are unskilled young men who work long hours seven days a week. Pay can be as little as $500 a month; many send their wages home to support families.

Ships have rules barring fraternizing with passengers. Carnival, Mr. Gallagher said, prohibits crew members from fraternizing but encourages officers to be friendly. ''The guests like it,'' he said.

And romance, of course, has long been one of the attractions of cruises. ''Sex between crew and passengers happens all the time,'' said Dennis Hypolite, a musician who worked for Carnival and Royal Caribbean for three years until he quit on Nov. 1. ''Every cruise, every day. Crew go into guest cabins and guests go to crew cabins. Both seek it out, passengers and crew.''

Mr. Harris, the former Carnival security chief, who now investigates shipboard crimes for lawyers of victims and insurance companies, said crew members and officers often pursue sex with female passengers.

Carnival's lawyers said Mr. Harris was a disgruntled former employee who earns his living testifying against cruise lines.

Michael D. Eriksen, a lawyer in Lake Worth, Fla., has handled more than a dozen cases of sexual assault on ships.

''Typically it starts out with an opportunity for a crew member to observe and sometimes interact with a passenger,'' he said. ''A lot of times it will be a waiter or someone who works in room service or behind a bar.''

The Oregon girl struck up a conversation with a bartender in the Ain't Misbehavin' Lounge on the Monarch of the Seas, a Royal Caribbean ship. It was her 16th birthday, and after some drinks she went with the bartender to his cabin.

The girl's parents said she was raped and sued the cruise line last year. Royal Caribbean contended that the sex was consensual. Even so, because of the girl's age, the incident would have been a felony had it occurred in Florida. But state law was not applicable. The line also accused the girl's parents of failing to exercise reasonable care in protecting their daughter and subpoenaed the girl's school records in an attempt to discover previous problems.

When the case was settled this summer, the company insisted on a confidentiality agreement that prohibited the family or their lawyer from discussing the case, according to the lawyer, David W. Bianchi.

''People just want to get on with their lives, and when the cruise lines wave money under their noses if they promise not to talk, they always accept it,'' Mr. Bianchi said.

In a deposition, the bartender, Cleve Ellis, testified that crew members make a sport of having sex with passengers, Mr. Bianchi said. The deposition has not been made public because of the confidentiality order. Attempts to find Mr. Ellis were unsuccessful.

People who deal with assault victims say young girls are often targets on cruise ships. In 1996, Mr. Bianchi represented the family of a 14-year-old who said she had been raped by a crew member aboard the Fascination, a Carnival ship. After an article about the case appeared in a legal publication, Mr. Bianchi said, he was contacted by the father of a 16-year-old girl who said she had been raped by the same crew member. Both cases were settled and the crewman was dismissed after the second report, he said.

Last year, the Texas couple were on a Carnival cruise in the Caribbean to celebrate their 10th anniversary. The woman said the waiter drugged their drinks at dinner and later came to their cabin and raped her while her husband was unconscious.

The couple complained to cruise officials, who responded in part by moving them to a better cabin for the remainder of the voyage. When the ship docked in San Juan, P.R., they tried to report the incident to the police but were told they would have to contact the F.B.I. They never did.

Theodore L. Shinkle, a Carnival lawyer, said the ship's officers had assisted the couple in contacting the San Juan police and had provided them with the number for the F.B.I.

The couple filed a civil suit against Carnival. At the trial the waiter, Ashton Sylvester, a 12-year employee of Carnival, denied having sex with the woman, and witnesses said she and her husband had been drinking heavily that day. But the company settled the case just before it went to the jury. Mr. Shinkle declined to disclose the terms of the settlement, citing a confidentiality agreement. He said Carnival's decision to settle was ''just a matter of good business sense.''

Rape experts say delays often occur in reporting rapes, particularly in a situation like a cruise, where the passenger could fear reprisal and there is no independent investigator or rape treatment center. But the time lag makes criminal prosecutions difficult.

''Cases reported within 72 hours offer the best forensic evidence,'' said Dr. Karen J. Simmons, director of the rape treatment center at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami. ''But we see a lot of people after that because they may be afraid of reporting it or ashamed.''

Dr. Simmons said the center did not keep statistics on victims from cruise ships, but she said passengers were treated with some frequency. Court files in Miami, where most suits must be filed against the big cruise lines, indicate rapes often are not reported until too late for criminal investigation.

Maneuvers
Trying to Deflect Victims' Lawsuits
Not everyone delays reporting. On June 19, 1997, a 35-year-old California woman aboard a Royal Caribbean ship with her parents sought help immediately. The woman had spent some time in the ship's nightclub before returning to her cabin about 4 A.M. Unlike many cases aboard ships, where alcohol is plentiful, records show that she consumed only a non-alcoholic drink in the nightclub. ''I put my key into the slot to open the door,'' she later testified in court. ''I put one foot in and was pushed from behind.''

She said she fell onto her hands and knees but ''fought to save my life.'' People in the cabin next door heard the commotion, but did not summon help. Her injuries were so severe that she was on crutches for two weeks, according to court records and her lawyer.

When her attacker left, she called her father and he alerted the ship's security. Within hours, the woman had identified her attacker in a line-up as Jorge Virtucio, a member of the cleaning crew.

Questioned that day by a ship's security officer and a company lawyer who had been flown in, Mr. Virtucio denied being anywhere near a passenger, saying he had been washing decks at 4 in the morning. When asked about scratches on his body, he said they were from minor work accidents.

Mr. Virtucio was indicted and, as his trial approached last May, DNA evidence linked him to the assault. He switched his story and his lawyers argued that the woman had consented to sex. A jury found him innocent.

''Our defense was that the case was a false claim and that the motive was ultimately to sue Royal Caribbean,'' said Fletcher Peacock, the public defender appointed to represent Mr. Virtucio at trial in Federal District Court in Miami.

The woman did sue Royal Caribbean. Her lawyer, Johnna J. Hansen, said the cruise line had appeared to cooperate with her client and had notified the F.B.I. at the woman's request. But she said that the cruise line had tried to make sure no one else on the ship heard about the incident and that F.B.I. agents were delayed for several hours before boarding the ship. During that time, she said, her client's room had been cleaned, making it harder to gather evidence.

She also said lawyers for the cruise line conferred with Mr. Virtucio's lawyers in the courtroom during the criminal trial. Mr. Peacock said Royal Caribbean maintained a neutral stance, but its lawyers were pleased by the verdict.

In court papers, Royal Caribbean said it was not responsible for a crew member's actions outside his official duties.

To counter what it regards as frivolous lawsuits, the cruise industry had its lawyers draft a measure in 1995 to restrict the ability of sexual-assault victims to collect damages in court and to prohibit foreign crew members from suing in American courts.

Representative Don Young, an Alaska Republican, introduced the measure as an amendment on the House floor and it passed without a hearing. Between 1993 and 1998, Mr. Young received at least $29,000 from political action committees and individuals affiliated with the cruise industry, according to Federal Election Commission records.

The bill was stopped by Senator Ernest F. Hollings, Democrat of South Carolina, after lobbyists for the trial lawyers noticed the language and started a campaign against it.

One of the strongest accusations of a coverup involved a crew member who said she had been sexually assaulted. A 26-year-old Carnival employee was in her cabin last Aug. 13, nearing the end of a weeklong Caribbean cruise on the Imagination, when one of the ship's engineers, Yurij Senes, attacked and sodomized her, according to court records.

Her lawyer, Mr. Bianchi, said the woman reported the rape to ship's security and identified her attacker. But Carnival's lawyers said the woman initially did not want to report the episode to the authorities.

Two days later, when the ship docked in Miami, Mr. Senes was dismissed from his job and arrangements were made for him to be taken to Miami International Airport for a flight to his native Italy because his visa automatically expired when he was dismissed. By then, the female crew member had filed a complaint with the F.B.I. and agents told Carnival security personnel that they wanted to interview Mr. Senes. Mr. Mase, Carnival's lawyer, said a mix-up occurred and the suspect was taken to his flight without being questioned.

Mr. Bianchi disclosed at a court hearing last month that his client had testified before a Federal grand jury investigating whether Carnival helped the officer escape. John Schlesinger, special counsel in the United States Attorney's office, would not confirm or deny an inquiry. But he expressed amazement at the suspect's escape. ''Carnival raised some eyebrows when they whisked him to the airport moments ahead of the posse,'' he said.

In September, Mr. Senes was indicted on Federal charges of aggravated sexual assault. He was arrested at his home in Italy and faces extradition to the United States.

Lawyers who sue cruise lines said it is common for crew members suspected of crimes to be sent home. Tracking them down for depositions and subpoenas can be expensive and difficult.

''My general experience is that the cruise lines would rather be horse-whipped than bring these perpetrators back to U.S. law enforcement,'' said Mr. Eriksen, the Lake Worth lawyer, who has located crew members as far away as Bombay.

There also is evidence that employees are encouraged to lie or remain silent. Charles Lipcon, a Miami lawyer who often represents crew members, said they often keep quiet about crimes because those who speak out are dismissed and sent home.

In 1995, a Florida appeals court found that Carnival had dismissed a crew member, Luis Baiton, for refusing to lie to protect the company in a civil suit brought by another seaman. ''Allowing retaliation against an employee for truthful testimony, or refusing to give false testimony, strikes at the heart of the adjudicatory process,'' the court said.

The case did not involve sexual assault, but rather a claim filed by a crew member who was hurt on a ship. Mr. Baiton said Carnival had tried to persuade him to lie in his testimony on behalf of the crewman and dismissed him when he refused.

In September, Royal Caribbean paid a $9 million fine after pleading guilty to a fleet-wide conspiracy to dump oil into the ocean. As part of the plea, Royal Caribbean acknowledged ordering an engineer to lie to a Federal grand jury and destroying evidence to conceal its illegal dumping.

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