COAST GUARD ROCKED BY SEX CHARGES
CADET FACES COURT MARTIAL - FIRST EVER
AT NEW LONDON, CONN. SERVICE ACADEMY
LINEBACKER ON FOOTBALL TEAM ACCUSED OF
RAPE AND OTHER CHARGES - VICTIM ALLEGED
TO HAVE BEEN ASSAULTED WHILE PASSED-OUT
FROM BOOZE AT ALL-NIGHT DRINKING PARTY

He says it was "consensual" sex.  She says she was "raped" while passed out after a night-long drinking party.  One of them is lying.

Whatever happened on June 4, 2005, Cadet 1st Class Webster Smith of Houston, Tex., is headed for a court-martial - the first ever in the Coast Guard Academy's history.

The 22 year-old linebacker on the Academy's football team faces nine charges, including rape, sodomy, extortion and assault.

Friends describe the "victim" as Smith's "on-again, off-again girlfriend."  She says she was drunk and can't remember having sex with the African-American cadet.

Smith has been isolated from his classmates and sleeps off-campus.  Cadets are housed at Chase Hall at the New London, Conn. academy.

The 1st classman is being represented by Merle Smith, (no relation), a local attorney who is a Coast Guard Academy graduate and once taught as a professor at the school.

At press time, no date has been set for court-martial, but observers think it will be very soon.