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A male nurse at Kwajalein Hospital is facing criminal prosecution in Hawaii for allegedly drugging and raping a drunken crew member of a Coast Guard vessel docked at the Marshall Islands atoll.
The federal prosecutor here filed a criminal complaint in U.S. District Court last week charging Dennis Henry with aggravated sexual abuse.
The FBI says Henry put the prescription sedative Ambien into the beer of a male crew member of the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Sequoia on March 24 and then sexually assaulted him.
The crew member told investigators he had been drinking all day and that the last thing he remembers was swallowing a lump in the beer Henry handed him. He said he woke up the next morning dazed and in pain.
The FBI says the crewman went to see the ship’s medical officer, who sent him to Kwajalein Hospital for a sexual assault examination. Hospital personnel also took a blood sample that the FBI later confirmed contained the active ingredient of Ambien.
Henry told the FBI he has Ambien but that he and the crew member had consensual sex.
Kwajalein is part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands. The Army leases most of the islands for the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site. A contractor operates Kwajalein Hospital.
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