Gay Porn
Admissible in Navy Doctor's Trial

A military court may consider gay porn found on a Navy physician's home computer during his trial on charges that he secretly videotaped midshipmen having sex, a military judge ruled Monday.

Cmdr. Kevin J. Ronan faces 11 counts in next month's trial, including three counts of illegal wiretapping and seven of conduct unbecoming an officer, Washington, D.C., station WBC-TV reported.

Admitting the porn into evidence was fiercely opposed by Ronan's lawyer because it brings his sexuality into scrutiny and thus jeopardizes his military career even if he is acquitted, WBC said.

Marine Col. Steven Day, the judge in the case, ruled the porn could be used to establish a motive -- a "possible need on his part" to view "young, athletic males" engaged in sex.

Ronan, like many officers, opened his Annapolis, Md., home to midshipmen over weekends and holidays as part of a U.S. Naval Academy program. He was physician to several Naval Academy sports teams and a medical officer to the midshipmen's dorm.

He got into trouble when one overnight visitor, who later flunked out of the academy, claimed he found a camera hidden in an air ionizer in a guest bedroom in Ronan's home, as well as several DVDs and tapes of the young guests having sex -- the witness with his girlfriend and a second man masturbating.

Ronan's civilian lawyer, William Ferris, claims the witness tried to extort money from his client.

"And I think he was going to try to use this to be persuasive, and that got out of hand," Ferris told WBC.

Among the data the Naval Criminal Investigative Service recovered from Ronan's hard drive was his apparent membership in a Yahoo Group extolling gay porn star Brent Everett, the Baltimore Sun reported.

Ronan testified that he didn't download the porn and that any of his visitors could have done it. (Barbara Wilcox, The Advocate)