A search and rescue team member at a remote National Science Foundation outpost in Antarctica made his initial appearance in federal court Thursday after he was arrested for allegedly assaulting a female co-worker.
McMurdo Station, one of three U.S. outposts in Antarctica, is the logistics hub of the U.S. Antarctic Program. Scientific research is performed at and near McMurdo Station in aeronomy, astrophysics and geospace sciences, biology and ecosystems, geology and geophysics, glaciology, geomorphology, ice cores and ocean and climate systems, according to NSF’s website.
Located at 77 degrees 51 minutes S, 166 degrees 40 minutes E, the facility where the assault allegedly occurred was built in 1955 on the bare volcanic rock of Hut Point Peninsula on Ross Island, the solid ground farthest south that is accessible by ship, according to the National Science Foundation.
Stephen Tyler Bieneman, 38, was charged with one count of assault within maritime and territorial jurisdiction in connection with a Nov. 25 incident at McMurdo Station in Antarctica, according to a federal criminal complaint filed Dec. 12.
He made his initial appearance Thursday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Wes Reber Porter in Honolulu because it is the “first district in the United States” to which Bieneman was brought from Antarctica, via New Zealand, and will have venue over the case, according to federal court documents.
Bieneman’s preliminary hearing is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Jan. 12 before U.S. Magistrate Judge Kenneth J. Mansfield. His attorney, Assistant Federal Public Defender Sharron Rancourt, declined comment. Assistant U.S. Attorney Mohammad Khatib, who is prosecuting the case for the government, through a spokesperson declined comment.
Bieneman was released on a $25,000 unsecured bond.
According to an affidavit by Deputy U.S. Marshal Marc E. Tunstall, who has been posted at McMurdo since September as an officer responsible for upholding federal laws for U.S. citizens working in Antarctica as NSF employees or contractors, the NSF Antarctica Area manager contacted him Nov. 29 to inform him that an assault occurred on the night of Nov. 25.
A doctor in the medical clinic told the NSF manager that the woman who was assaulted and treated did not want to disclose her name or the name of her alleged assailant, according to a federal criminal complaint.
That same day, Tunstall received a call from the doctor informing him that the victim would like to talk to him and the Sexual Assault Harassment Prevention Response advocate assigned to McMurdo Station.
She allegedly told Tunstall that on the night of Nov. 24, she had played a “practical joke” on Bieneman in the lounge of a dormitory.
She told Tunstall that while both were sitting on a sofa next to one another, she took the name tag off Bieneman’s jacket and said “that he couldn’t have it back,” according to the complaint.
She then stated that she stood up right after Bieneman did, and they moved behind the sofa and he allegedly “put her on her back, placed his left shin over her throat, and began going through her coverall pocket.”
She told Tunstall that she couldn’t breathe and tried to tap out with one hand while making a choking symbol with the other.
After about a minute of being pinned to the ground by her neck, she said Bieneman found his name tag in her pocket and then removed his shin from her throat.
She told Tunstall her pain level was an 8 on a scale of 1 to 10, and that after Bieneman removed his shin from her neck, “someone she didn’t recognize was standing over her asking if she needed help,” according to the complaint.
She asked the man to get one of the nurses. A few minutes later the nurse took the victim back to her room and then the medical clinic for treatment.
The nurse told Tunstall that he asked the victim whether she wanted him to call 911, and she said no.
A fellow SAR member interviewed by Tunstall allegedly said that he saw the two joking around and then “began wrestling out of his view.”
Following about a minute of silence, the man told Tunstall that he remembered Bieneman “standing up over where he believed (the victim) was lying on the floor and Mr. Bieneman saying ‘I’m sorry I didn’t mean to hurt you,’” according to the complaint.
