A lawsuit brought by a civilian engineer working on a US Navy ship alleging she was raped by the ship’s captain has been halted by a New Jersey judge. As per Stars and Stripes, her report of Captain Yamil Sanchez Padilla entering her locked room at night to rape her must be treated as a workers’ comp claim.
Elsie Dominguez, a US Merchant Marine Academy graduate, filed her lawsuit against the U.S. Government in November 2025. She alleges that she was working on the expeditionary transport vessel the USNS Carson City in December 2021 when it stopped in Brindisi, Italy.