{"id":105936,"date":"2026-01-20T16:08:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T16:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/105936\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T16:08:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T16:08:08","slug":"two-cadets-sue-merchant-marine-academy-claiming-unfair-punishment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/105936\/","title":{"rendered":"Two cadets sue Merchant Marine Academy claiming unfair punishment"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"U.S.\t\t\t<\/p>\n

U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point<\/p>\n

Long Island Press archives<\/p>\n

Two cadets at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point have sued the academy and federal officials, alleging procedural errors and due-process violations.<\/p>\n

The cadets, Marina Ronzoni and Morgan Mitchell, say they were punished more harshly than other students after being accused of lying about underage drinking in 2024.<\/p>\n

Ronzoni and Mitchell were scheduled to graduate with the class of 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Efforts to reach the academy have been unavailing.<\/p>\n

The cadets say the academy\u2019s honor board initially ordered them to complete a 45-day honor remediation program and 50 hours of extra duty.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After they appealed and appeared before a new board, the acting superintendent imposed a one-year \u201csetback,\u201d meaning they would not be eligible to graduate until 2027, the lawsuit says.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit says the academy failed to follow its own rules during disciplinary proceedings and retaliated against the cadets for appealing its first decision.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It alleges midshipmen who admitted drinking after initially lying received less severe penalties, and that Ronzoni and Mitchell were the only students who had to undergo a second honor board, which the plaintiffs say suggests discriminatory punishment.<\/p>\n

Ronzoni and Mitchell have supplied written statements from other cadets saying they were not drinking and spent most of the outing playing volleyball.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The lawsuit also has conflicting witness accounts\u2014some other witnesses allege seeing drinking and say Ronzoni collected phones to hide it, a charge she denies, saying she gathered phones to encourage community.<\/p>\n

In a December letter to Mitchell, Capt. Anthony J. Ceraolo, the academy\u2019s acting superintendent, wrote that Mitchell had received a fair hearing, that two separate honor boards \u201cunanimously found you in violation of the Honor Code based upon a preponderance of the evidence presented,\u201d and that she had multiple opportunities to present her case.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit seeks monetary damages and a review of the agency\u2019s actions under the Administrative Procedure Act.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The case is currently pending in federal court in the Eastern District of New York, and the academy has not publicly altered the penalties cited in the complaint. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point Long Island Press archives Two cadets at the U.S. Merchant Marine…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105937,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[47991,3100,47992,47993,9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-105936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-kings-point","tag-lawsuit","tag-marine-cadet","tag-merchant-marine","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}