Navy chaplain pleads guilty to lesser sex charges, not rape

NORFOLK

Navy chaplain Shane Dillman pleaded guilty Tuesday to multiple charges of adultery, fraternization and conduct unbecoming an officer, and could face up to nine years in jail.

But first, Dillman will be court-martialed today on rape and other adultery and fraternization charges, to which he is pleading not guilty.

The lieutenant and Pentecostal minister, Dillman reported aboard the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson in July 2007. He came from Bethesda Naval Medical Center in Maryland, where he earned honors for ministering to wounded Marines and twice escorted President George W. Bush on tours of the hospital.

While assigned to Bethesda, Dillman served in Kuwait. It was there, at a Bible study at Camp Arifjan, he met a junior enlisted hospital corpsman with whom he began a romantic relationship that lasted almost two years.

The chaplain told the judge, Capt. Moira Modzelewski, that the affair continued after both returned to Bethesda, where Dillman separated from his wife, Danelle. The Dillmans eventually reunited.

"I have no excuse for violating the fraternization order," Dillman told Modzelewski, using the term for relationships between enlisted military and officers of both sexes. "I could have avoided it had I chosen to do so."

Dillman also pleaded guilty to a second affair with a junior sailor he met on the Vinson. That romance lasted a few months, ending early last year.

Prosecutors have painted Dillman as someone who preyed on vulnerable women. Another sailor, whom met the chaplain when he presided over her child's funeral, testified that Dillman loaned her money, worked out with her and asked her about her sexual habits. She also testified that he once called her to his shipyard office and opened the door wearing only boxer shorts.

Charles W. Gittins, Dillman's civilian attorney, said at earlier hearings that the chaplain violated fraternization rules and committed adultery, but was not guilty of rape. He contends men such as Dillman are unfairly targeted for having affairs while their female military partners go unpunished.

Dillman has elected to be tried by a judge alone, meaning Modzelewski will decide whether he's guilty of rape and the lesser charges. The rape charge stems from what allegedly transpired between Dillman and a third junior sailor at a Newport News hotel one Saturday in 2007.

The accuser claims that Dillman told her to show up at a room he had rented, then forced her to have sex. Witnesses have testified that Dillman was home all weekend with his wife, children and houseguests.

One of the guests - another Navy chaplain - couldn't explain at a preliminary hearing why, while he was at the family's home, Dillman called him repeatedly on his cell phone. Prosecutors say the calls show Dillman could have slipped away from the house for the rendezvous.

A rape conviction could carry a life sentence.

Dillman had his ministerial credentials revoked by the Coalition of Spirit-Filled Churches last summer after he was charged. Since then, he has been assigned to administrative duty.

Kate Wiltrout, (757) 446-2629, kate.wiltrout@pilotonline.com