A Navy doctor was dismissed from the service after pleading guilty in Japan to sex crimes against former patients. A month after returning to the United States, he was arrested for not registering as a sex offender.
Lt. Cmdr. Anthony L. Velasquez pleaded guilty to two counts of wrongful sexual contact and two counts of conduct unbecoming an officer at a court-martial at Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan, in May.
Four women described how Velasquez inappropriately touched them or made sexual comments while he was stationed at medical facilities at Naval Air Facility Atsugi, Japan, in 2007-08 and at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait in 2008-09.
As part of a pretrial agreement, prosecutors dropped 29 criminal counts against Velasquez, who avoided a two-year prison sentence and a $28,000 fine and instead spent seven days in a Yokosuka brig.
Angry victims claimed the Navy handed down too light of a sentence and misled them about how severely Velasquez would be punished.
Velasquez returned to the U.S. and was arrested in early August by police in Washington state for not registering as a sex offender, but he was not charged.
