Coast Guardsman charged with Unalaska sexual assault

UNALASKA (AP) -- A Coast Guardsman has been indicted on charges of raping a female colleague in an Unalaska hotel room last September, according to an agency spokesman in Juneau.

Corey Wolfe is also charged with indecent exposure, indecent language, kidnapping and sodomy, Coast Guard spokesman Ray Massey said.

The charges were recently handed up by the Coast Guard equivalent of a grand jury.

At the time of the alleged attack, Wolfe was a crewman aboard the cutter Morgenthau, homeported in Alameda, Calif. The ship is part of the Coast Guard fleet that patrols the Bering Sea to enforce federal fisheries rules and conduct search and rescue missions.

The Morgenthau was taking a shore break in Unalaska on Sept. 25, when the alleged incidents occurred.

The state could have charged Wolfe, but Unalaska Public Safety Sgt. John Lucking said local authorities yielded to the Coast Guard because no civilians were involved.

''We were completely uninvolved, but we were kept in the loop because it happened in our jurisdiction,'' said Lucking.

Massey said the investigation was conducted last year by a Coast Guard investigator and a victim's advocate who flew to St. Paul to meet the cutter after it left Unalaska.