Appeals court revives sex case vs. midshipman

Maryland’s second-highest court ruled Wednesday that a sexual assault case against a U.S. Naval Academy midshipman could be revived, over a year after a jury acquitted the now-22-year-old.

The three-judge panel agreed that an Anne Arundel County Circuit judge “acted without authority” when he dismissed two charges against Garrett Lee Holsen, a Wisconsin native who was accused of sexually assaulting a fellow midshipman during an off-campus party.

The opinion, written by Appellate Court of Maryland Judge Douglas Nazarian, stopped short of making a firm decision on whether Holsen can be tried again on those charges, instead sending the case back to Anne Arundel County Circuit Court. There, Holsen’s defense team can raise issues related todouble jeopardy, according to Megan Coleman, who represented Holsen during a rare appeal by prosecutors.

If that fails, Holsen could ultimately be tried again — but only on the third-degree sex offense and second-degree assault charges that Anne Arundel Circuit Judge Robert Thompson instructed the jury not to consider if they found Holsen not guilty of a second-degree rape charge.

The jury did exactly that in September 2022 after several witnesses testified that Holsen had intercourse with a heavily intoxicated midshipman during an off-campus party following the previous year’s Herndon Monument Climb, while his defense attorney, Peter O’Neill, argued the encounter was consensual, challenging the integrity of Holsen’s accuser — who he argued was not intoxicated — and calling character witnesses who testified about Holsen’s respect for women.

The Maryland Attorney General’s office, which represented local prosecutors in the appeal, declined to comment on the matter, citing that the litigation was still ongoing.

“We’re not sure yet what our next steps are,” Coleman said, describing Holsen as a “wonderful, upstanding young man.” The Wednesday decision could be reconsidered by the appellate court, or lawyers could try to get the Maryland Supreme Court to hear the case. Barring those options succeeding, the case would go back to circuit court, where Anne Arundel County State’s Attorney Anne Colt Leitess confirmed that prosecutors were seeking to try Holsen on the revived charges.

O’Neill, who said he “absolutely” would like to represent Holsen if the case comes back, said he believes another jury would still find Holsen not guilty — though he wishes his client didn’t have to go through the “horrible torture” of the revived allegations between now and then.

“Garrett’s a great young man,” he said, noting the decision was “not good news” for his client to get ahead of the holidays.

During the trial, O’Neill argued that because the case hinged on the woman giving consent, it wouldn’t make sense for the jury to find Holsen not guilty of second-degree rape while still finding him guilty of the lesser charges. Prosecutors argued that each charge could represent separate crimes, and that the jury could find Holsen’s accuser consented to different things at different points that night.

Thompson agreed with O’Neill, a decision that the panel and Leitess said the judge made without authority and precluded the jury “from considering all the charged crimes against the victim.” Prosecutors appealed that decision after jurors found Holsen not guilty of the remaining rape charge.

Wednesday’s decision was a reported opinion, meaning that unless it is overturned by a higher court, it stands as precedent for the state’s trial courts.